3rd
Circumstance (2011) tells the story of unrequited love between two girls in modern day Iran. The young actresses beautifully and subtly evoke a passionate love affair just with a glance of their eyes. Debut director Maryam Keshavarz even makes the secret exchange of a red origami crane romantic. By setting the film in a country where their love is forbidden, Keshavarz sets up one of the sexiest and most provocative films in the past decade, which is probably why it won the Sundance Audience Award for Dramatic Competition.
The story moves along at such a quick pace one doesn’t even realize the film is subtitled. Seeing the two girls sneak into the ocean in their underwear even though it could mean being arrested adds to the constantly claustrophobia and tension in the film. The imagined sex scene between the girls is similar to Black Swan but makes the latter look like child’s play.
The film also features an extremely hilarious sequence that speaks to the bootlegging of American films in Iran. In the scene, the film Milk is being dubbed into Persian and the director specifies that voice over needs to be ‘gayer’ resulting in a joke that transcends the language barrier.
The film draws you in with the belief that the two lesbians will leave the country together but by the end the oppressive nature of Iran appears to overshadow the lovers. Though it’ll probably never play in the country in which it’s set until major reforms are made, the film opens to world wide audiences on August 19th.
