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.
