In one continuous flow of time, the film follows the lives of several women through the streets of Teheran: three who’ve escaped from prison (one of whom wants to have an abortion), a prostitute, and a mother who is forced to give up her daughter. The story begins in a maternity ward where a baby girl has just been born. The husband’s relatives will be highly disappointed and so the mother of the woman giving birth sends her other daughter to warn the family. The story shifts from character to character, forming a closed circle, a symbol of confinement, in which women are limited by orthodox society. In a circle of omnipresent male control and superiority, women are interchangeable, and trying to go beyond its limits is a punishable act.
The film won the Golden Lion, the FIPRESCI Prize, the UNICEF Prize and Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury at the 57th Venice IFF 2000.
