Iranian-American writer-director Maryam Keshavarz has created a beautiful Persian-language film that is as much Iranian as it is American. Circumstance straddles the line between Iranian and American youth culture so delicately that when we are shown hip underground clubs or clandestine parties, we feel like we can’t be in modern-day Tehran. And due to obvious and unfortunate restrictions, we are not – Circumstance had to be filmed in Lebanon, and even there discretion was paramount to the film’s survival due to the same-sex subject matter between the two lead characters Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and Shireen (Sarah Kazemy). The film is definitely made for a Western audience, but Keshavarz still challenges the Western audience by questioning our complacency in understanding the Middle East or Islamic cultures as being wholly repressive and tyrannical. Keshavarz is showing us how multi-faceted Iran is and how a relationship like Atafeh and Shireen’s could survive there. Source: http://thirdcoastdigest.com/2011/08/lgbt-film-fest-sneak-peek-circumstance/