Dayereh

Dayereh means 'circle' in Persian; the circle of women in this movie, where they form a unity, but also the circle that they are inevitably surrounded with, by the strict laws against them, formed by men, in the contemporary Iran.



The starting point of the circle is a woman named Solmaz Gholami, whom we do not see throughout the movie, and who has just given birth to a baby girl, although the ultrasound had showed that it was a boy. Her mother is worried that Solmaz's in-laws will force their son to divorce her and hence, we immediately come face to face with the reality that this is a world where women are of extremely low value. Following that, the movie passes on to the other women of the circle; three young who have just been released from prison and are desperately trying to find money to help one of them, Nargess, get back to her hometown. While showing the viewer in small details that being an ex-prisoner woman is an even harder situation, we follow the path of the circle, to Pari who has escaped from the prison the very same day; to Monir and Elham who are also ex-prisoners and have somehow managed to get their life back together in more or less better conditions; Fatemeh who has left her daughter on the street so that a nice family can take her in for a better life; and Mojgan who has been caught riding in a man's car in the middle of the night. While Mojgan is taken to jail, we meet the previous women there, once more locked up and as a guard calls for Solmaz Gholami, the circle is finally closed inside the cell.

Dayereh has won several prestigious awards, including Golden Lion, however, it is banned in its home country Iran. The small cell-window in the beginning and in the end represents that the moment you are born as a woman in Iran, you are imprisoned. The movie shows how hard the life is for the women in today's Iran, in small but crucial details, such as the fact that a woman is not allowed to travel alone without the company of a man, or that she has to wear a chador under certain - public - circumstances. Moving smoothly from one woman's story to another, inter-related or not, we get a piece of that woman's past and another piece of what her future will be, leaving the completion of the story to the viewer. What is witnessed is not a brutal violence against women, but rather an oppression as an everyday's routine; while men walk and talk and are freed by a 5-minutes of begging, it is a silent obedience, anxiety and imprisonment that the women will get. The movie also mentions in a few scenes that men also get their share of oppression, however, there will always be an easier way for them to get out of that mess. While men are raising their voices, the women will get even more silent and at the end of the day, they will create a bond of sympathy, not as that of a warm sisterhood, but rather as a desperate care.

Dayereh is a must-see, for women especially, who will certainly feel empathy, even if they are part of a society that do not ignore them by suppression.