CIRCUMSTANCE written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz, with Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy. 105 minutes. Subtitled. A Mongrel release. Opens Friday (October 7). For venues and times, see Movies.
When Maryam Keshavarz tells me she just gave birth to a baby girl two weeks ago, I tell her she’s set off on an incredible journey.
How’s it going so far? I want to know.
“The response to the film has been amazing,” she says on the phone from a mall in Los Angeles, not realizing I’m asking about her new-mother status. The Iranian-American director is so focused on her other labour of love – her movie Circumstance – that she imagines I’m asking about it instead.
Her first feature, Circumstance focuses on two teen girls whose relationship has taken a sexual turn inside an increasingly repressive Iran.
But Keshavarz doesn’t think of it as a story about queers.
On how she personally relates to the story:
“The centrepiece is actually the family,” she says. “The film doesn’t explore the underground queer movement as much as it explores young women and freedom of expression and sexuality. These women truly love each other and are free with each other.
“But people are not able to express who they really are because of the repression. They have to live a double life,” says the director, who previously made two shorts and a documentary.
“What I love is the way the film resonates with people anywhere who feel like they can’t be who they really are. My Jewish publicist in Philadelphia could totally relate.”
Music is a very important part of personal expression in Circumstance, and Keshavarz plans to release the film soundtrack – which uses underground Iranian hip-hop and classical music, depending on the setting – in November.
“Some people have said Circumstance is a musical. It’s filled with music until the brother, Mehran, creates a repressive environment, and then the film starts to go silent. People keep wishing they could know what the lyrics mean, but I don’t think you have to know. You can feel it.”
Keshavarz realized early on that she wouldn’t be able to shoot her film in Iran, and chose Lebanon as a location instead.
“I always wanted to shoot in the Middle East. I needed to have the feel of that world. I could have raised a lot more money had I shot in the States, but for me Lebanon added a layer of tension that the project requires.”
Not that Lebanon didn’t present its own problems, even if it is considered the gay mecca of the Middle East.
“Lebanon is the battleground between the U.S. and Iran. You have conservative areas that support Iran – you can see Iranian flags in South Beirut – and then you go to the Christian area, which is ultra-modern, [where] you feel like you’re in Los Angeles. I’d identify myself as Iranian or American depending on where I was.”
The movie has a strong Canadian connection. Toronto is the home of one of the largest Iranian immigrant communities in North America, which is why Keshavarz auditioned actors here. And, artistically speaking, Atom Egoyan was a mentor for her at Sundance and hooked her up with T.O. stage stalwart Soheil Parsa, who appears in his first film role in Circumstance.
“Small world, isn’t it?” Keshavarz laughs.
Additional Interview Clip
On getting Americans to go to a film with subtitles:
susanc@nowtoronto.com
