"Circumstance"

"Circumstance" is an Iranian film produced  by among others Sundance and Netflix.  Written and directed by Iranian-American Maryann Keshavarz, it is about two girls aged 16 beginning a romantic relationship.  The President of Iran has told us that there are no gays or lesbians in his country, and about 8 years ago, while sharing a cab with my friend Andrew we got into a discussion with our Pakistani driver about gays in Pakistan.  He assured us there weren't any in Pakistan.  "It's just in the West there are such things."
So it is always good to see and support artists who are talking truth to power.  Modern Iran is shown not only as a patriarchy but with a defined class system.  They show the wealthy, educated class with their privileges and the poor on the streets, panhandling.  People have criticized the film because it doesn't look like Iran and the actors have foreign accents, but never having been to Iran and not speaking the language, this is not an issue.  One of the subplots is about a group of girls, the 2 girls, 2 male friends and an Iranian-American.  They decide to do voice overs to the American  film "Milk" and then slip the DVDs into casings with other labels.  It's a funny scene and cleverly subversive.
I am reminded of the time I went to hear Nuola O'Faolain speak at Barnes and Nobel.  She read from her book, "Are You Somebody?  The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman"; about the Ireland she grew up in; how much it has changed and how that change happened.  "It was pop culture", she said, "liberation through Rock and Roll." Tom Stoppard's play "Rock and Roll" explores the same idea.