Circumstance (2011)

Crappy film

best movie i've ever seen.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I don't understand why this movie has such a low rating. This movie is SO IMPORTANT. I think that everyone should see it to understand better what is STILL happening in the world right at this moment. Movie is different than what we usually see these days. It touches an issues of women/lgbtq people in Iran, a muslim conservative country. Acting of Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy is really something to talk about. I absolutely loved it. It really fits their characters and they did an amazing job. They made me really feel the characters. I can't imagine better actresses for the roles. All in all, amazing movie, 10/10. Not everyone will like it but I think it's worth to give it a shot at least..

I've read all the reviews, good and bad. Almost everything bad about this film has been mentioned. It's inauthentic, insincere, controversy-baiting, poorly written, poorly researched, etc. etc.Iran has a lot of good things and bad things, but this movie is not satisfied with either, so it invents a new country, the republic of Tehrangeles, and calls it Iran. There is almost nothing Iranian about this film. Yes, they speak Persian(ish?) but it's the equivalent of saying the movie "Rent" is representative of British culture because it's the same language. The disconnect between Iranian-Americans and Iranians is huge because Iran has gone through a revolution, war and an embargo, while the US went through many changes on its own.This film is the equivalent of a North Korean director making a film about South Korea and convincing the world that this is reality.But "wait!" you say. "Iran is the totalitarian state, not the US! Your example should be a South Korean director making a film about North Korean." But nopes. Iran has a lot of restrictions on society and filmmakers, yes, but this film constructs a fictional country.I cannot stress how bad this film is. Most of it is just shot in music video style. There is a scene where the two girls sit on top of a crossing railing, put their heads together and close their eyes. That's not something people actually do anywhere. That's music video material.So, what else do they do?1. It starts with a belly dancing scene. 2. Then there's playing piano and dancing-ish on the stool. 3. Then the girl(s) dance(s) in the taxi, saying "Turn up the volume. This song is orgasmic" - No one talks like that. It's a hip hop song. Get a grip. 4. There's the dancing on the bridge crossing. 5. There's a party and dancing at the party. 6. There's a scene, who cares what, but we go back to the party for more dancing. 7. The girl dances with her mom(?) as the mop up the floor. They stop cleaning the house and just go full dancing. 8. The family is singing on the way to the sea. 9. Dancing at a dinner table, the parents dance. 10. The girl stares out the window wistfully as she hears herself(?) sing. 11. Playing piano. 12. Singing a verse from the Quran. The word is technically recite/chant, but it's still melodic. 13. Dancing to Total Eclipse of the Heart 14. Some club, somewhere, dancing. I think this might be an imagination of life outside Iran. 15. Dancing in a hotel. Or was this the imagination? 16. Dancing in an illegal nightclub 17. Dancing in a car.This is still one hour into the film. I didn't bother keeping count after that.There are things that show how little the director knows about Iran or its culture. For example, even I know that people in mosques pray together. In sync. That's the whole point of group prayers in every culture in the world. It is to pray together. In this film the mosque scenes have people praying off sync. A group of 10+ praying men all praying on their own beat. You can say that they're praying off schedule (they missed the group prayer) and they're catching up before the next one, but as the shot lingers, it shows that they finish one after the other, every 3 seconds one finishes prayer. The first to finish and the last were about 20 seconds apart. So they were praying at the same time, same place, but some were off by a mere 3 seconds... what? No two people were praying together? Why even bother going to a mosque? It's like shooting a restaurant scene where no two people are sitting together. I'd give this film a zero, but IMDb won't let me. So it gets one star. But to be fair, it does get one star because it gives you an insight into the mind of an Iranian American. I have nothing against Iranian Americans, but a subsection of that particular demographic is as informed about Iran as the average American (so knowing little to nothing), which is fine, but a subsection of that demographic also think of themselves as an authority on the matter because of their genetics.Imagine if Katherine Heigl presented herself as an expert on East German culture, directing films about communism, the Berlin wall, the Stasi, etc. Then, instead of doing any research or going there, imagine her going to Prague to shoot the film, making a ridiculous story about graffiti on the Berlin wall, with two lesbians, one from the East one from the West, meeting at the wall. The Western one plays music through a boombox and they dance together or exchange love letters through barbed wire. And most of the film is about dancing.People would laugh at how bad it would be. Heigl wouldn't do such a thing, but this director has.This film is in my bottom 20 list, along with Foodfight! and Birdemic.

Iranian-American screenwriter and director Maryam Keshavarz's feature film debut which she wrote, premiered in the U.S. Dramatic section at the 27th Sundance International Film Festival in 2011, was shot on location in Lebanon and is a USA-Iran-France co-production which was produced by Karin Chien, Melissa Lee and Maryam Keshavarz. It tells the story about Atafeh, a 16-year-old student who lives in a wealthy family in Tehran with her father Firouz, her mother Azar and her older brother Mehran who has recently returned home from a rehab. Atafeh spends most of her time with her orphaned best friend Shireen who lives with her uncle. Atafeh and Shireen share a dream about leaving Tehran to become singers and they are becoming more than just friends, but then Atafeh's brother meets Shireen and falls in love with her.Finely and acutely directed by Iranian-American filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz, this finely paced fictional tale draws a moving and intimate portrayal of a forbidden romance between two somewhat rebellious 16-year-old girls. While notable for it's naturalistic and atmospheric urban milieu depictions, fine production design by production designer Natasha Kalfayan, cinematography by cinematographer Brian Rigney Hubbaro and costume design by costume designer Lamia Choucair, this character-driven and dialog-driven coming-of-age indie depicts two dense studies of character and contains a prominent score by Indian-American multi-instrumentalist and composer Gingger Shankar.This romantic and engaging drama about identity and the freedom of love, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, subtle character development, entwined stories, multiple viewpoints and the commendable acting performances by Pakistan-born Canadian actress Níkohl Boosheri and French actress Sarah Kazemy in their debut feature film roles and Iranian-born stage director, writer and actor Soheil Parsa. An empathic and mindful love-story which gained, among other awards, the Audience Award-Dramatic at the 27th Sundance International Film Festival in 2011.

All of the actors (except one or two) have very bad accent that can't even pronounce Farsi words. In fact Farsi/Persian is not their first language and I was wondering if they know anything about Iranian culture.I'm sure the film crew haven't been in Iran for past 30-40 years. As if you've ever been in Iran, you know we have no clubs there. and nothing looks like what you see in the movie. It may look good if you watch it as a fiction-drama love story. But if you think this has ANYTHING to do with Iran and current situation in Iran, let me be clear, you're totally WRONG!