Circumstance

[osprey_archer]

Circumstance, an Iranian movie, details the stormy late adolescence of Atafeh and Shireen, best friends (and later lovers) who are acting out in every way they can. They stay out late, they drink, smoke, take drugs, they have sex with boys (and each other) and get involved in dubbing Milk, the movie about the pioneering gay activist, into Farsi.

It is ultimately the last that gets them in trouble with the morality police. Atafeh, who comes from a good family, gets off with a warning and a slightly tarnished reputation; but Shireen is an orphan, the daughter of executed political activists, and her reputation crumbles.

Enter Atafeh’s brother Mehran, who is only too happy to swoop in and marry the beautiful and option-less Shireen! Mehran has recently gotten out of rehab. Allah is his anti-drug, and he is bound and determined to convert the rest of his not-particularly-observant family, particularly his little sister, who he fears is unclean. He has, it slowly becomes clear, set up surveillance cameras throughout his own house (including his sister Atafeh’s bedroom, what is wrong with you Mehran) in order to keep tabs on his infidel family members.

Naturally, the camera in Atafeh’s bedroom eventually turns up some, uh, interesting footage…

While Circumstance doesn’t end with hearts and roses, it also doesn’t end with anyone dead, so it’s not as grim as I feared it might be. But it’s nonetheless rather a grim movie. Atafeh and Shireen take on the world in search of pleasure, but outside of each other, they don’t find very much.

Comments

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

Oh, I need to watch this.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting movie. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, exactly, but...it's an interesting movie. And they sang some songs - not in a musical sort of way, in a "this is a family gathering where real people might reasonably sing" way - which I liked a lot.

[nagasasu.livejournal.com]

I liked Circumstance! The brother was just so creepy. I also liked the way it acknowledged class differences.

I also think Pariah is a good counterpoint to Circumstance.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The university is doing a bunch of Iranian films this semester, so I'll have to see if they're showing Pariah.

[nagasasu.livejournal.com]

Ack, my bad, Pariah is an American film. (Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWAENR3eawM)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

So Atafeh marries Shireen, which puts Shireen and Mehran under the same roof. Uh-oh. Atafeh, you're definitely in for some unexpected surprises.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Mehran marries Shireen. He is shocked and appalled that marrying a desperate girl with no other choices who never particularly liked him, doesn't immediately result in marital bliss!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry: I had Atafeh and Mehran reversed, I think because I know a woman named Mehran.

How old is Shireen at this point? (15? 18? 20?) She's an orphan, so whose care has she been under up to now? And do we have a sense of what her fate would have been if she *didn't* marry Mehran?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Sixteen or seventeen, I think? It's not clear how much time passes over the course of the movie.

She's been under the care of an aunt and uncle, who are much less prosperous than Atafeh's family. The movie doesn't actually spell out what would happen to her if she didn't marry Mehran, but I had the sense that her reputation was damaged rather than completely ruined: her aunt and uncle don't seem to intend to kick her out of the house, but it's clear that her future prospects have been considerably foreshortened.

Moreso than it was just by being the daughter of executed political activists, I mean. I think that history makes the damage to her reputation worse: it's like she's confirmed what many people have already assumed about her.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Moreso than it was just by being the daughter of executed political activists, I mean.

--makes me think of Pen Pal, but change "daughter" to "son."

Okay, the situations are completely different, but just thinking about how things have ramifications through the generations, how "punish[ing] the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation" isn't so much a curse or threat, but an observation….

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. It's like her parents hit the first two strikes for her; she just has to make one mistake, and she's out.