“The Circle” (“Der Kreis”) is a startlingly effective mix of drama and documentary, combining both interview footage of longtime lovers Ernst Ostertag and Röbi Rapp and the dramatized story of how they met in the 1950s as part of the social scene created by the gay literary and cultural journal from which the film takes its name.
As “The Circle” begins, with drag and domesticity, we see Röbi and Ernst as they are now — a longstanding love that contains the big flourishes of musical theater and the small movements of ironing — and flashing back to the ’50s. With Sven Schelker playing the young, applause-hungry Röbi and Matthias Hungerbühler as the closeted, shy Ernst, we also get to see the challenges and conflicts that forged their seemingly effortless love.