The Circle is a movie that never stops moving. Like Taxi Driver, the essence of The Circle is the essence of the city: motion, circular motion. The nine or so distressed women who enter and leave the plot are always walking here, running away from there, or being transported to some destination by taxi, bus, or private car. And because most of us in America don't have a cognitive map of Tehran, we simply get lost in this swirling, cinematic city with its cluttered alleyways, busy thoroughfares, and flights of rickety stairs.

The Circle is not simply a successful work of cinematic art, but also a scathing study of how women are criminalized in Iranian society. The director's conclusion is this: Iranian men are hypocrites and Iranian women are persecuted simply because they are women. For example, there is a scene near the film's end where a man is arrested for picking up a prostitute. The officer investigating the crime has also just picked up a woman from the streets. While she waits in his car, he listens to the arguments of the arresting officer and the accused. Finally, the accused breaks down and pleads for mercy, claiming he is a devoted husband and hard-working father. The officer lets the accused go, but has the prostitute arrested and sent to jail. Unlike the American study of women in national politics that DreamWorks produced last year (The Contender), The Circle is not overwhelmed or hindered by its broad political agenda; the art and message dissolve smoothly into the motion of the women, as they desperately attempt to improve their impossible circumstances.

The circle implied by the title, then, is that which women are locked into from birth to death. And beneath this primary circle are other circles, defined by the constant flow and motion of humans through the streets of a big city.