Dayereh plot
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's third feature focuses on the plight of women in Iran. In The Circle, Panahi portrays eight women, all of whom find themselves in extreme situations. They have just come out of prison, desperately trying to arrange an illegal abortion or trying to live as prostitutes. Even something as innocent as smoking a cigarette on the street can get you into trouble. The women's lives seem to take place in a circle, the beginning and end of which are determined by invariably suffocating living conditions.