The film was shot in 35 days over a 53-day period . As usual Panahi used non-professional actors , with the exceptions of Fatemeh Naghavi and Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy . He saw the lead actress , Nargess Mamizadeh , in a park one day and immediately offered her the role . The film opens with one long , handheld shot that lasts over three minutes and took 13 attempts to achieve . Panahi adopted a different camera style to depict each of the four main protagonists ' lives . For the first , an idealistic woman he used a handheld camera . For the second woman , the camera is mounted on a constantly moving dolly . The third woman 's story is told at night in darker outside , and the camera is static with pans and tight close ups . For the last , least optimistic woman both the camera and the woman are completely immobile and very little sound is used . Panahi submitted the film to the Venice Film Festival without getting a permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance . At the festival it won the Golden Lion , the FIPRESCI prize , the UNICEF prize , the Ecumenical Special Mention , the Sergio Trazzati Award and Mamizadeh won the Italian Film Journalist 's Award for Best Actress . The Ministry of Culture and Guidance issued a permit for the film a few days before its screening at the festival , although they already knew that it had been submitted illegally . The Ministry later banned the film in Iran . Panahi was worried that the Ministry would " confiscate and mutilate " all copies of the film , so he made multiple copies and hid them all over Iran . Irans 's Cinema Deputy Mohammad-Hassan Pezeshk said that '' The Circle '' was banned because it had " such a completely dark and humiliating perspective . " It was later withdrawn by Iranian authorities from the Fajr International Film Festival for being " offensive to Muslim women "
Venice Film Festival
57th Venice International Film Festival
Jafar Panahi