Even if it was terrible, “Circumstance” would still be worth watching. It provides a penetrating look at a world most Americans know nothing of — one strand of Iranian youth culture — at a time when we really should be trying to understand that world. Luckily, “Circumstance” is stunning, one worth watching purely for the drama. But it has an added power because watching its characters fight against their fates, we know their real counterparts face the same thing: a desperate wish for freedom in a society that not only discourages individual choices, but actively stamps them out.
Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) meet at school and become best friends. Atafeh’s family is wealthy and liberal. Her father encourages his children to study Western art, while her mother serves wine to the family’s guests. Shireen isn’t so lucky. She’s orphaned — we’ll find out why later — and lives with a poor uncle who is determined to marry her off quickly, in a proper Muslim marriage. Perhaps both offer something the other doesn’t have: Atafeh has ambition, Shireen has a smoldering sensuality.
| On screen |
| 3.5 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Sarah Kazemy, Nikohl Boosheri, Reza Sixo Safai |
| Director: Maryam Keshavarz |
| Rated: R for sexual content, language and some drug use |
| Running time: 107 minutes |
Those two things conflict with the reappearance of Atafeh’s brother, Mehran (Reza Sixo Safai). The talented musician has returned from rehab, but swears off both his former passion and his former rebellion. He finds comfort now in the mosque, to the incredulity of his family. But Mehran’s new interests are more dangerous than even they suspect. They’ll end up changing the lives of everyone in these two very different homes.
Much will be made of the fact that Atafeh and Shireen are attracted to each other. There’s one scene in which Shireen imagines the two of them in Dubai, where “anything is possible.” But it’s not just erotic energy these two feel; they have all sorts of hopes and dreams, without an outlet for any of them.
Nothing is black and white here, either — though we would have believed such a world exists in Iran. Atafeh’s father takes the family to the beach, where the women sit completely covered in the sand while the boys can feel the water against their skin. “One day, we can all go in together,” the father says. But that isn’t good enough for Atafeh. Later, she turns her resentment on him: “You created this world.”
The world of “Circumstance” might not be what many of the revolutionaries had in mind. But that world, in all its beauty and repulsion, is presented in gorgeous shots that show the filmmaker’s love for the land — and the mostly luckless people who live in it.
