Round and round it goes...

The Circle follows in a weary, er, circle the lives of a random selection of Iranian women who are down on their luck.

The point-of-view shifts like Richard Linklater's indie classic 'Slackers', dropping off and picking up characters as the camera slopes around the mean Iranian streets, but always it focuses on women at the end of their tether, caught in the awful loop of Iranian 'justice' that, once they are at all criminalised (for whatever reason, and usually it's quite a petty one) leaves them no viable escape route, but only forces them further into a life of crime.

Petty crime, prostitution, deceit, there are no criminal masterminds here, only women who for the most part sincerely want to make a decent life for themselves and are now unable to.

The meaning of the film's title only becomes clear at the end (but I won't spoil it for you).

It should be pointed out that The Circle is definitely NOT the Iranian equivalent of the 'chick-flick'. Mostly very little happens, there's no standard plot or resolution and the first half-hour or so is pretty confusing. Stick with it, however, because this is worth watching - well-acted, full of tension and a dreadful insight into a true Catch-22 world.