Movie Recommendation: Circumstance

I haven’t seen this film, and today is the first day in theaters, but this sounds fascinating.  Circumstance is “set in contemporary Iran in the unseen world of Iranian youth culture, filled with underground parties, sex, drugs and defiance, CIRCUMSTANCE is the story of two vivacious young girls — wealthy Atafeh and orphaned Shireen — discovering their burgeoning sexuality and, like 16 year-old girls anywhere, struggling with their desires and the boundaries placed upon them by the world they were born into.”  It doesn’t claim to be completely accurate – in fact, it’s fiction, like so much of Hollywood and Baliwood – but like all fiction that isn’t science fiction, it is based on reality and possibility.

There is criticism of the movie – often from older Iranian men, naturally.  “Keshavarz understands that many people will be upset by her deliberately provocative film, saying ‘people are threatened by the film, and not just the issues of sexuality, but it also deals with repression and how it affects individuals. They’re really unnerving topics, and they’re addressed in different ways in Iran. They can’t show the scenes that I do and that’s uncomfortable for them. But I think it’s good to have that discomfort.'”

Perhaps someday this movie or a movie like this will sell the most tickets at the box office.  Or maybe I’m just a dreamer.  I hope you join me in my mighty dream.