Circumstance

Having just seen a great film set in Tehran (see the Persian Cats) I was looking forward to this. We are introduced to two girl friends in school and immediately told that one is rich and one is poor. We follow these two friends through their lives as they struggle to reconcile what it means to be women in Iran, what it means to be teenagers, what it means to be lesbian, what it means to be religious, what it means to be rich or poor, and what it means to have family history. We see the girls and their families make lots of choices, often without an obvious right choice being available. I found it interesting that in these choices, personality is revealed. Are you the type of person who is a risk taker, bold, willing to sacrifice for the potential future dream? Or the type who is fearful or realist, willing to sacrifice the dream for the sake of convention or safety? These girls are under duress for most of their lives and trying to cope, trying to acknowledge that dreams do exist (or could exist). Probably the most disturbing part of the film was when the car is pulled over for having a dog in the car and the officer confiscates the dog. The power imbalance, the perceived cruelty of the powerful and the implied moral judgement were thick on the screen. This one scene shows the power of film to communicate. Although I was underwhelmed by the images of Tehran that I was hoping to see, and underwhelmed by the overall pacing of the storytelling, I am glad I saw this.
3 stars (out of 5)