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Jafar Panahi's unsettling look at the modern dilemma of Iranian women in society has many scenes that unfold with suspenseful assurance, but the director's lack of clarity mars his overall intentions. The film is unable to decide whether it is a straightforward drama or a highly accentuated piece of cinéma vérité, leaving the viewer more than a little narratively disoriented. The camera moves with surprising fluidity, but the mark is missed in the film's overall obviousness. Devices such as the use of prison-like visuals to highlight the women's sense of entrapment are overdone and fail to let the viewer watch the film with a sense of learned awareness. The movie too often overstates its intentions, and while it is inconceivable that anyone would be uninterested in such gripping source material, the drama is often stifled and the lack of differentiation in its storytelling eventually proves defeating. The Circle, quite controversial in its homeland, was the winner of the 2000 Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion.