Some movies succeed in spite of themselves. Circumstance, the debut narrative feature from Iranian-American director Maryam Keshavarz, announces itself as a tale of forbidden love, two teen girls exploring a same-sex relationship in a society where such relationships are more than just frowned upon. But sapphic eroticism between two young and attractive women is mostly the sensationalistic hook for a film that is at its best when it is examining the tensions of fundamentalist state-sponsored Islam trying to keep its hold on a society that is being pulled toward the West from underneath, by an underground youth culture that engages in rebellion through the simple act of going out and blowing off some steam at a dance club.

That’s not to say that the relationship between Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) that forms the film’s center is contrived. There is a genuine chemistry between the pair, and the sweetness of fumbling teenage affection in many of their interactions. Atafeh is from an upper-class liberal family, while Shireen is the child of revolutionaries that the current Iranian government would consider dangerous radicals; they’re no longer around, though, so she lives with conservative relatives who are eager to find an arranged marriage for her that will bring status and money to the family.

There’s already social mismatch in the pairing — highlighted by a scene early on in which Shireen is unable to pay the tuition at the school that both girls attend. Those socio-economic differences might have even provided enough fuel for many parts of the narrative whether the pair were the same sex or not. The lesbian angle heightens the danger, to be sure, but the way Keshavarz handles it — trying to titillate instead of using the fact of their relationship to spur the issues her narrative is really trying to get at — distracts rather than illuminates.

When she moves things out of the bedroom and stops self-consciously flirting with controversy, the film is provocative for all the right reasons. Atafeh’s brother Mehran (Reza Sixo Safai) has just returned from drug rehab, and much like someone finding god lurking amid AA’s 12 steps, becomes a devout Muslim as a means to help control his baser urges. His relatively secular family deals with this as the price of his recovery, until it becomes clear that he has been recruited into the state’s morality police, and is spying and reporting on the actions of his own family, particularly his sister.

The ensuing confrontation has dire consequences for both their family and Shireen’s, and the subtlety and sensitivity with which Keshavarz navigates the fallout compensates for the cheaper thrills she employs to bring in viewers. Nowhere is this more apparent than a party scene late in the movie, in which the director brings the establishment in Iran face to face with the forces of change. The gathering is split between these factions, and there is an unconfortable anxiety in the air as fundamentalists interact with party-goers drinking alcohol, and with women who wear no scarves, who are even allowed to sing in public.

The spirit of rebellion at the party starts strong, but in the end, there is a nervous capitulation to the control of the state and the church. Keshavarz shows how Iran is a long way yet from their liberation from repression, but demonstrates how deep the fissures are that will eventually lead there. Unfortunately, the realities of the present are far more depressing, and what hopefullness lies in the ending of the movie is heavily tempered by what the characters must sacrifice to try to live free lives.

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Circumstance
Written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz
Starring Nikohl Boosheri, Sarah Kazemy, Reza Sixo Safai
Running time: 107 minutes
Rated R for sexual content, language and some drug use.
Opens today at Bethesda Row and Shirlington.