2011 · documentary · drama
This Is Not a Film
Directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Jafar Panahi1h 18m2011
Renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi received a 6-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban from filmmaking and conducting interviews with foreign press due to his open support for the opposition party in Iran's 2009 election. In this film, which was shot secretly by Panahi's close friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and smuggled into France on a USB stick concealed inside a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, Panahi documents his daily life under house arrest as he awaits a decision on his appeal.
Our read: This Is Not a Film (2011) reads as a neutral, slow-burn, inventive documentary · drama entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Neutral, slow-burn, measured documentary / drama, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured.
- slow-burn
- signature
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How This Is Not a Film feels to watch.
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“You want a spare, urgent documentary about censorship and creative resistance.”
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