User Reviews

The first word that comes to my mind for this movie is exaggeration.All the praying and character of "Mehran" and government agents don't make much sense. The director tried to make the city she was filming in like Tehran which was a wrong choice. She tried to focus on faces and removes the attention to background when shooting in city which ruins the depth of the scenes and every single Iranian easily realize that it is not Tehran. Except for "Azar" no other actors or actresses have native accent.The story line is weak and not thoroughly worked. In general, it would be a good idea to show the homosexuals' problems in Iran and discuss it, but it dissolves in exaggerated opinions of director/writer about the whole government issues and forced marriage and specially in captured minds of people (like in 1984). In my opinion, trying to mix these stuff was a bad idea.

Circumstance is a beautiful, luscious, sensual and sexually charged drama, done masterfully and tastefully. It is a visual film, but it is also blessed with witty dialogs and good music. It deals with common and real youth and family issues in Iran, and potentially in other countries...Circumstance is about two liberated, free-spirited 16 year old high school girls, the wild and rebellious Atafeh and Shireen. They are best friends and seem together all the time. They go to underground Tehran parties, flirt with boys, experiment with sex and drugs, and often get in trouble. At times they daydream of a better life away from Iran together. But they are more than just friends...

Please see my full review at http://parstimeout.com/2011/05/film-circumstance/.

This film could be a good movie if the film crew knew more about the new generation, specially the girls in Iran. As an Iranian I couldn't believe the main characters. in comparison I can say that the character and performing of Shaun Toub in Crash(2004) and Ben Kingsley in House of sand and fog(2003) that both are non-Iranian, were more believable as Iranian than them. they cannot behave like an Iranian because they don't live in Iran and most of them have never been to Iran(according to IMDb).So each of them is completely performing as a teenager that has been growing in a different culture other than Iran. the film location and its elements are totally nonsense and different with Iran and what is important is that the audience who are familiar with Iranian culture and Iran can easily feel this differences. the Brother personality is very rare among Iranian youth and his behavior is overstated. in nutshell it is not about Iranian circumstances but it is about circumstances which can be related to an Iranian family who live in a foreign country but they think they should still consider some circumstances.

just could not believe that this is a film made by a first time filmmaker......it seemed more like someone who knew his craft of making film rather well....a director well into his 3rd film.....keeping aside the fact its a little confusing in its love & sex angles......which is just the icing on this delicious cake that lies within this film.....the icing being of course Sarah Kazamey as Shireen....she is defiantly going to be the next Monica Bellucci mark my words !!!But what stood out in the film for me was the underground Party scene of Iran and the appropriate use of music to describe it......i guess most people in the west cannot fathom people in eastern( i am from India) or middle eastern countries having a cool time.....well they do n they know how to given the CirCumstance !!!!!!!!!!!!!! and i read the reviews of some people above dishing the film....i mean if you want a film about Iran that is a documentary well then please turn on your respective News Channels or better still plz revisit n read the the summary above.....This film is a Lyrical Drama poetically shot....hats of to the Cinematographer/ DP( lots of cool wong kar wai style moments original in their own unique way).....superb acting by everyone i loved the actor who played Atafeh's father splendid father daughter understanding of a relationship depicted in this film in such a mature n modern way seldom seen in countries where women are meant to be locked up....being an aspiring filmmaker i loved this film by a first time director 5 stars for a fabulous debut.....n yeah for the guys ditching the film take a closer look guys.....n see the nominations & awards and this is her first film !!!

Honestly the first parts of the movie is not so fascinatingly as it should be, after a while it gets more deeper to the real situations in Iran. It doesn't say how Mehran really evolve to a point that he hurts his own family. What had been seen here from Mehran, I think comes from all Iranian women mind that they think men are evil. it wasn't explained why Ati wanted to stay. And "Dad"'s reactions to his son's works was unnatural. Now the good things are, that despite shortage of money and location, camera somehow gave the common viewer the feeling that, it is in fact in Iran (except one seen). Shireen played a really good Iranian girl, Also Ati's Mother played a very good Iranian mother. Director used so many no-face people which I can't understand the reason. She was successful to transfer lots of problems in Iranian society but jumped so many time from situation to situation. Personally I think the scene that Shireen is in a taxi and what taxi driver did, was the best. It showed how lower level society of Iran is so sick in the mean time showed deep pressure on both sides in that taxi.

OK, first of all let me tell you that I'm a 28-year-old Iranian woman who has left the country just a few months ago so actually my whole life has been spent in that system.

When I saw the trailer and awards, I thought it might be a good movie so last night I watched it with positive expectations but as the time passed by, it all turned to deep disappointment. I felt my time was wasted and the director has grabbed a good idea (personal experience of friends as she says) and made worth of nothing out of it. I understand making a movie about one country in another land can be difficult, especially when you have to use a cast who were immigrants' children and can't speak their mother-tongue fluently; but it could have been tolerable if you had a screen play as good as the main idea and the characters were believable.

Not even one line of dialogue in this movie made sense. it was a very poor imitation of everyday slang in the society and they were totally irrelevant. The plot lacked harmony and it was unreal. The characters' reactions to circumstances were like a very bad joke, specially Mehran and his father; I don't know which planet they were from!! People like Mehran and his way of life don't invite their extremist superior to a family party were women are not covered. And his father in the beginning clearly opposes the religious system and then drinks tea with a man who is insulting his daughter( thanks to Mehran) and in the ends is saying prayers next to his troubled son.

Also most of the erotic scenes and language were unnecessary and could simply be avoided but in the end, it felt like that was the only reason this movie was made. Just to break the taboos, grab a good idea, add some nudity and language, write a few irrational lines which were just in farsi but had nothing to do with Iranian culture, shoot the film and win some awards because the western society does not know about Iranian people and their real way of life.

Iranians can't like this film because it is not like life in Iran and they easily find plot holes in every scene; the western viewers like this film because they think that's how life is in reality, they don't see the problems in the film and enjoy two hot lesbian girls making out with each other and almost every man in this movie!

Teenage love is not easy. It is even more difficult if that love is between two members of the same sex. Throw that mix into a country where homosexual relationships can be punishable by death, and you have the makings of a good story. Atafeh (Boosheri) lives in a family of wealth and privilege with her mother, father and brother, Mehran. (Reza Sixo Safai.) Shireen (Kazemy) comes from the other side of the tracks, so to speak. She lives with her Aunt and Uncle after being orphaned by her parents who were killed by the government for their immoral ways. Atahfeh and Shireen are two teenage school girls. The pair who are best friends, soon discover that they are in love. The girls are also rebellious to Iran's strict religious and socialist ways. They are big into Tehran's underground nightclub scene, and are friends with people who are self-liberated. Mehran, who was a former drug addict, has become a radical Muslim and informant for the Morality Police. He has planted cameras all over the house to spy on his family. Mehran derives a plan with the Morality Police to marry Shireen after she an Atafeh are arrested by the morality police for partying at a night club. The pair discovers that their circumstances in life are forced upon them and beyond their control. They both dream of running away to Dubai where they would be free to live their lives the way they wanted to. The story had a good plot-line; forbidden love, oppression of women, and teenage rebellion in a patriarchal country… but the narrative seemed to just graze over those subjects as a whole, when it could have gone more in depth with each of them. The sub-plot of Shireen's home life was minimal at best. Atafeh's mother can tell that her daughter's relationship with Shireen is more than friendship, but that part of the story never fully develops either. The plot seemed to move slowly at times, and with a bit of a soap opera pace, but it was good enough to keep my interest in the film. Maryam Keshavarz, in her feature film debut, does however show the impact of Iran's strict religious culture on the two girls. The viewer does get the impression of what could happen to the pair if their true relationship is discovered. The performances of the young actresses, both in their theatrical debut, do a good job in making their relationship believable.

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2011 Sundance film festival, this foreign film is worth the 107 minutes it takes to watch.

I recently met Maryam Keshavarz after watching a screening of Circumstance. A lot of the reviews here complain that it is unrealistic and that she has no basis of Iranian culture and that the actors aren't from Iran, etc. But Keshavarz's family is from Iran and she spent a lot of time there as a child. She based Mehran's character off of her uncle who made a similar transition after war. As for the actors, all of them are Iranian. They might not have been living in Iran, but she said all of them are from Iran. And she could not advertise the roles in Iran.

Secondly, it doesn't look like Iran BECAUSE IT'S NOT. The director was forced to shoot the film in a different country under great suspicion. This film was shot on actual film, not digital, and all of it happened within the span of six weeks. Which is not that long. The cinematography is phenomenal.

And finally. This movie is illegal in Iran. And none of the actors or the director are allowed back to Iran. Ever. I think that says something.

I personally thought this movie was beautiful. The cinematography was good. The plot was enticing and wonderfully executed for the budget and restraints they faced.

I highly recommend this movie.

A film made by an Iranian expatriate living in the United States. The film is set in Iran, but was filmed in Beirut. The story follows two best friends, Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy, who discover a sexual attraction after Kazemy moves in with Boosheri after her dissident parents disappear (and are assumed to have been murdered by the government). Meanwhile, Boosheri's brother, a former drug addict who has become deeply religious after returning from prison, spies on his friends and family, and is completely open to turning any of them into Iran's morality police. This film has mostly been dismissed by critics and viewers (it has a fairly dismal 6.0 rating on IMDb), and I can understand some of their criticisms. It's a little too glossy, a little too polished, and the hot, teenage, lesbian sex is more than a tad exploitative (almost Cinemax-ian at times). But, really, there's a very good human story at the core of this, with very well written and performed characters. Boosheri, in particular, is just fantastic. I think it's also partly dismissed because it wasn't filmed in Iran - if it was, it would have been a critical hit for sure - and the director probably would have been stoned to death, which would make it even more beloved. Keep in mind that the writer/director, Maryam Keshavarz, is actually an Iranian woman who escaped her home country.

Movie was going too good, untill the end. Sharin's sudden diversion of all so longed feelings for her best friend ,was not much acceptable! Atleast to me.. If you took an initiative and made ur straight best friend completely go into you, girl c'mon, show mercy too.. She was leaving behind everything for a new unknown place.. And she must have imagined to b with u , if not everywhere atleast there... Sharin could have been a bit less emotional towards her husband.. But then thats the thing obviously, after marriage to b soft wife, fulfilling husbands demands.. And forgetting the rest.. All of the rest.

"Circumstance" is not a good movie and it basically strays into distracting eroticism. There is no convincing story here worth telling. You are not sure if the girls were in love or just caught up in finding and experimenting with their sexuality in very young age. Lesbian fantasies throughout the movie are visualised all too aesthetic with bright lights, colours and music. This is not just unnecessary and counterproductive, but also far from the reality in a society with huge heritage and significant past that in fact admire naivety and innocence. You may just like the way it portrayed, again imperfectly, the unseen side of Iran's underground culture but "Circumstance" is hardly about revelation and more interested in titillation!

I saw this film at Outfest 2011 and was blown away not only by the film's quality of visual and emotional impact, but also the amazing achievement that the artists have made by getting this story told in the first place. The international cast and crew have each taken big risks by telling this gripping story about two young women in love in Iran.

Our audience at the screening was struck by the POSITIVE and FUN images of Iranian youth- excited, energetic, comedic, brave. Very much in contrast with what the media tells us Tehran "looks like." The two female leads are incredibly stunning and give amazing performances. They say more with their eyes than paragraphs or monologues would need to convey. Their chemistry is palpable and the brief but urgent love scenes make any audience member root for their success.

The Director, Maryam Keshavarz, is talented, well-spoken, has a clear and distinct voice and is someone to watch.

Atafeh has wealthy relatively liberal Iranian parents. She attends parties with her best friend orphan Shireen. They rebel and start a sexual affair. They join other kids to make an outlaw movie. Atafeh's older brother Mehran is a recovering drug addict. He's unemployed and finds support in a mosque. He becomes increasingly religious and installs surveillance cameras in the family home. He's obsessed with Shireen and pushes to marry her. Atafeh's father also faces religious pressure and starts to join his son.

The first half isn't anything special. The lesbian affair doesn't feel real. The relationship feels manufactured. Mehran's turn is more compelling. It is sinister and scary. The last act has some good dark turns. I don't think it works completely but it has some good drama.

I seldom write reviews for movies, but since the director of this movie is a NYC graduate and I got my film degrees in New York as well (to no avail!), I feel the urge to write the following: You do not have to make a movie even if you are a film graduate and want to succeed! If you know little about a culture, people and society, what urgency do you find to absolutely portray them anyway! You only ruined it for yourself and that's it! The movie fails from the first second to the last, with absolutely no plot, no story telling capabilities, fake dialogue, fake acting and many stolen images and scenes from other successful movies. The director is extremely preoccupied in showing off and has no intention to in fact make a good, truthful and original film, as the story is very interesting, very controversial. I felt even more sorry for the so called intellectual and educated Iranian population abroad as they once again prove incompetent and fake in comparison with Iranian filmmakers in Iran, who despite their enormous limitations and hardships there, tend to stick to originality.....

So unreal. So exaggerated. Since i've watched this film i've started asking myself why and how someone dares to waste money and time to make such a film? Was it a FILM really?!!!!!!! The accents are funny. The actors suck!! (except Ati' mom) There are plenty of goofs. The story is full of lies. The director (?????!!!!!!!!!) needs to wait at least 25 years for her next film. The cars are not the ones which are used in Iran. The praying action is full of mistakes. Mehran's character and acting is awful. The police is not like that in Iran, however they are rude. The hidden camera story in all rooms is more like a joke, everyone is blind in that house?

CIRCUMSTANCE is a brave film from the respected filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz who both wrote and directed this film about contemporary mores and cultural taboos in Iran. It is a film that dares to create a story about family, the youth culture of clubs and drugs and all night music, about the Morality Police who carefully guard the standards of public (and private!) behavior, and about same sex liaisons. It is a beautifully photographed study of star-crossed lovers who happen to both be young teenage girls and the manner in which they cope with their love and with the family and world outside the sanctity of their breathtakingly erotic moments together. Because of the lack of sanctions of the themes of the film which is supposedly set in Tehran the film had to be shot in Lebanon: knowing this adds to the impact of the drama the film so carefully exposes.

Since any public expression of passion is forbidden between Keshavarz's two teenage female protagonists, it brings a whole other level of tension and dread to their shared attraction. Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) has the resources and security provided by her wealthy family that allows her to live a double life with her friend and eventual lover, Shireen (Sarah Kazemy). In order to fully explore their feelings, the young women escape into their fantasies of living in a more enlightened land such as Dubai, a haven which is tantamount to Oz. The life of teenage love is difficult enough, but it is even more difficult if that love is between two members of the same sex. Apparently Iran is a country where homosexual relationships can be punishable by death. Atafeh lives in a family of wealth and privilege with her parents (Soheil Parsa and Nasrin Pakkho) and brother, Mehran, (Reza Sixo Safai). Shireen is not of the same class: she lives with her Aunt and Uncle after being orphaned by her parents who were killed by the government for their immoral ways. Atahfeh and Shireen are two teenage school girls who begin as best friends and gradually discover that they are in love. The girls are also rebellious to Iran's strict religious and socialist ways, being caught up in Tehran's underground nightclub scene. Mehran, a former musician and drug addict, has become a radical Muslim and informant for the Morality Police, installing cameras in every room of his home to spy on his family, capturing all the comings and goings of each member of the household, including the trysts between Ayafeh and Shireen, and devises a plan with the Morality Police to marry Shireen after she and Atafeh are arrested by the morality police for partying at a night club. The young lovers discover the circumstances that force them into lives away from each other and the decisions they make (or are made for them) form the conclusion of this haunting film.

Apparently there is great resentment from many Persian viewers who feel the film does not project the real situation in Tehran or in Iran as a whole. This may be true, but the film is not a documentary: Keshavarz has taken an idea and molded with certain flavors and spices and delivers this brave little film by introducing the extraordinary beauty of the two leading actresses. The cast is solid and if the script could use some editing or re-sculpting it still delivers a concept about same sex love and the lack of acceptance that seems to be global. We rarely are able to see Persian films and this one is well worth attention. It is not meant to be factual: it is a story exotically told - and memorable.

Grady Harp

The movie fails at projection of Iran's society condition and its crisis, the story line is thorn apart and follows no intentional logic ,bad performances and weak dialogues complete the disappointment of watching a movie that is praised in some important festivals.

As an Iranian I believe the director is far from the current condition of Iran and although it seems like she concerns about the existing problems in Iranian society she fails to dig into those obstacles. feeble decoration design, locations and character definition are other aspects in which the movie fails, its full of goofs and unrealistic situations and unexplained incidents (eg. as an Iranian director she should know that 16 yr old teenagers are not allowed to drive in that country and more importantly the traditional relation between members of a family).

The emotional relationship between the two girl was supposed to be the center of the storyline although it never engages in those emotions and leaves the viewer unattached to the movie.

All in all, to watch this picture is a waste of time and the only thing that can possibly make someone to watch it to the end is the beauty of Sarah Kazemi.

Very weak directing, writing and acting. Just look at how Mehran's dad or Mehran himself act! Also, the roles have not been properly defined. This is insulting to gays and lesbians, as they r shown to be very rude and offender. Are these all the Iranian actors and actress abroad? and is this movie all the potential of Iran film industry out of the country? The best actor/actress is Ati's mom. the dad sucks! As an Iranian, I really feel frustrated. Also, it's not reflecting Iranian culture at all. I hope non-Iranians not to think this as a Iranian publicity event. The movie does not represent a major challenge of Iranian young people.

Again, to me this is a very weak movie. however, I'm sure these are not all Iranian actors and actress we have out of the country? The all the potential of Iranian film industry out of the country.

First,This movie is just a copy of "A room in Rome" .

Second,The director isn't showing what really exists in Iran but rather her dream Iran.she just wants to question family values in Iran and encourage homosexuality; that is homosexuality is fine and marriage is bad.

I didn't see anything but exaggeration in this movie especially the numerous scenes showing Mehran is saying prayers. The funniest thing is the so-called location of the country and the cars that aren't similar to Iran at all. I wish the director had worked a bit reality into her movie.

As an American, I try to read about what the Iranian regime is up to every day. It's a scary, dangerous place, that conjures up images of a police state akin to Nazi Germany. Maryam Keshavarz's new film, Circumstance, attempts to reveal the repressive nature of Iranian society by focusing on the relationship between two teenage school girls from Tehran, Atafeh, who lives with her liberal parents and Shireen, raised by an uncle after her dissident parents presumably were murdered by the Mullahs some time after the Iranian Revolution.

Keshavarz spent some time growing up in Iran but it's my understanding that she's been thoroughly ensconced in the USA for quite some time. In interviews, Keshavarz indicates that she based her script on her some of her own experiences as well as the experiences of some her Iranian relatives. Hence, her narrative appears to be written at a distance, with the resulting storyline full of tasty morsels but never quite arriving at the main course.

We do learn about the rebellious, underground youth culture in Iran and there's an interesting scene where Atafeh and Shireen meet up with some friends including an Iranian-American, who conscripts the girls to participate in the dubbing of the American film, 'Milk', into Farsi. It's perhaps the most humorous scene in the entire movie, as the director chastises one of the participants for sounding "too gay" on the soundtrack.

Also interesting is the role of the 'morality police', as they seek to crush the spirit of the many rebellious youth, dissatisfied with repressive governmental policies. While Atafeh's brother, Mehran, ends up as an informer for the police, I wanted to know much more about how the group operates. Atafeh and Shireen are saved through Mehran's connections but I shudder to think of what happens to innocent citizens who don't have a family member to bail them out.

There were other scenes which I had no way of confirming were true. For example, Atafeh's father's assertion that he looks forward to the day that women can swim in the ocean. Some posters who claimed to be from Iran asserted that women are not prevented from swimming besides men. There was also a scene where an extremely sexually frustrated cabbie masturbates while fondling one of the girl's feet. Again, it's difficult to know whether this type of behavior is the norm in such a conservative society. One scene that did ring true was the arrest of the Iranian-American film director. At one point, we can hear a TV news broadcast in the background which notes the young man's arrest and that he is an American-Israeli agent (it would seem to me that anyone with joint Iranian-American citizenship would be insanely foolish to return to Iran at this juncture in time).

Keshavarz wastes quite a bit of time by focusing on the illicit lesbian relationship between Atafeh and Shireen. I would have much preferred the director to have limited the erotic contact to a minimum as it feels more like what American teenagers might do than the kind of behavior we would expect from Iranian girls, presumably much more shy and conservative, than their American counterparts.

Keshavarz attempts to humanize Mehran, having him break down after his marriage to Shireen and her negative response to him in the sack. That short hint of vulnerability is enough for Shireen to turn a cold shoulder toward Atafeh and suddenly embrace the backward Mehran. Not sure if I bought that sudden character transformation. The same goes for Atafeh and Mehran's father who rejects religion when we first meet him but then joins Mehran, bowing to Mecca on a prayer shawl at film's end.

While the film makes much of scenes of surveillance footage, connoting the Big Brother mentality in Iranian society, what's missing is a more nuanced portrait of the bad guys. What actually was Mehran and his superior doing at the party where Atafeh and her mother were singing together? I hardly think that those type of fanatics could have sat there and listened to women singing unless of course they were there seeking out additional intelligence.

For a first feature, 'Circumstance' is visually quite impressive. In the end, however, it's a film that's more style over substance. What was needed was more of a hard-hitting exposé than the tame domestic drama we end up with here.

lets start by the point which makes this movie way different from other movies with regards to Iran 1.no one was poor or uncultured or no camel on the street so that is good! 2.people tend to say stuff in other movies but taboos don't let that happen , well we heard it all in this film 3.no one ever talked about this concept (homosexuality)in any iranian movie before (i know this movie was way more that just homosexuality it covered it all!) 4. i happen to know a family quit similar in Iran , and trust me the brother of the family is an idiot just like Mehran he is a basiji while the sister is fooling around 5.finally we see many iranian moves which are good in scenario and concept but directing is weak somehow loose , like normal stuff , you can see the boom or unnatural scene , i didn not find any in this film , the genre was nice and clear not a random lets make a movie thing and thanks to ms.keshavarz we find many good new and old actors/actresses whom we did not know so far , the fact that the director was a female it self made me really glad too finally great job every one loved it at the end i want to thank the choice of music , Zan by a girl rapper . the name of the movie which is indeed best possible choice , for me though it was the circumstance for the father of the family whi changed as well as him! and the girls , well all iranian teens are having same problem