Monday, March 03, 2025

The Circle (movie review)

I’ve been enjoying a mini Iranian film fest here at home, thanks to Movie Madness, with more titles than Netflix, especially Iranian I bet. And thanks to Deke the Geek for the loan of this HDTV, which I connect to the old stereo stack (still VHS-capable) via AV/2.

The Circle is brilliant, but at first it made me mad. I felt abandoned by the director. I’d followed the birth seen, the highly annoying sounds of live birth signaling this movie will be mind expanding. That little framed window, between the medical world and this world outside. We would come full circle and end on that frame as well.

So the birth is a disappointment and that suffering woman, giving birth to the unwanted girl, fades in the rear view mirror as we follow the flowers down the stairwell only to end up with these other women who clearly don’t know anything about a baby. They have their own melodrama going, and now we have to follow them. That’s what made me mad at first.

But really, I can the camera follow everyone and be everywhere, to isn’t god. This is more like real life, where you switch from track to track, like a child does, if placed in foster care, or if picked up by police and taken off to some cell. What if you don’t have the right travel papers?

At first I found myself cursing at that other woman who was boarding a bus for paradise, only to see her wander off on some misbegotten shopping spree. “You’ll miss your bus you stupid lady” — but of course it was I who was incautious. The police were at the bus when she got back, checking everyone’s papers. Had she not wandered off, she’d be on her way back to jail already, as a woman alone, trying to travel without ID. That’s illegal.

That whole bus chapter comes after we’ve already forked off, choosing one of a duo, which had started out as a threesome after the unwanted girl baby scene. Then we jump to the other fork and start following the protagonist, I think we might call her. Her predicament is only now being fully revealed. She’s in a pickle too. 

And that’s when we come back around to a final forlorn female, or actually second to last. One sad story leads to a next in a male dominated police state, with hope only for rich people. No fun. Gotham has a dark side. Iran is not alone in this.

I admit to getting confused about timelines. Their identities all start to get shmooed together, just as the bureaucracy loses track of the people it hunts down. Society maybe run out of options for someone in a serious predicament, well before the life clock runs out. I still have the DVD checked out and plan to watch the special features. Then I’ll do some homework and see more of what I’ve missed.

Next in the queue: The Cycle, also Iranian.

Sunday, March 02, 2025

Social Media Messages

From Facebook

I’m for rebuilding west Ukraine and for the return of refugees who wanna rebuild it. This war didn’t start with the Russian invasion though, but with a civil war. I also support east Ukraine in its efforts to rebuild. This is the side that, rather than submit to the will of Kiev, decided to revert to the Federation. Given all the shelling in Donetsk, many other grievances, they get my empathy as well. Too bad outsiders on both sides each felt the need to escalate to the brink of a world war. That was unnecessary.
Commenting on Keith McHenry's post (March 2, 2025):
I'm for a neutral Ukraine, which was and still is a popular position outside of a more extremist inner circle. NATO dangled the carrot of membership and one political faction (what I'd call the far right) fell for it, betting all its chips. That faction lost.

Rebuilding Ukraine is what's up now. The oblasts who asked Russia to come to their defense are already rebuilding. Mariupol is looking a lot better.

Some still call that city part of "occupied Ukraine". I don't. When Ukraine has elections sometime soon (we hope, for their sake), these eastern folks won't be voting (part of the reason for putting off elections is no one wants to face the new limits to Kiev's jurisdiction). They'll have their own elections.
Replying to David Cassandra Mertz's post (March 1, 2025):
I see these events through a different lens. Trump is correct in his diagnosis: anyone who hates Putin that much is going to have a hard time negotiating the future. I’m for a neutral Ukraine, like most Ukrainians (last we knew).