This is Not a Film

"Film" or not, an extraordinary document
A rare work that can be dated exactly to the day it was filmed - March 16, 2011, five days after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the coverage of which Panahi watches at one point, and also the date of the Iranian holiday "Chaharshanbe Suri" or "Fireworks Wednesday", the beginning of the celebration of the Iranian New Year which coincides with the start of Spring. So this is a home movie of a day in the life of it's (co)director, right? Not quite. Panahi was under house arrest, essentially for "subversion", and awaiting appeal of his sentence to 6 years in prison and 20 years of no filmmaking or writing or leaving the country - essentially the end of his career (the appeal was not granted). He spends the day on the phone with various people, surfing the Internet (and complaining about how nearly everything is blocked), and trying to stay hopeful about his furture. At a couple of points he acts out and discusses parts of what would have been his next film, and it turns out...

"It's Important That the Camera Stays On!" - Review of DVD
This extraordinary film has a backstory that's almost as interesting as the film (excuse me, this is NOT a film, really it isn't - because it was short using a digital camera and an iPhone - but there are other reasons). As pointed out in my fellow Amazon reviewer, Paul Allaer, the Iranian filmmaker - Jafar Panahi - was banned from making any films and this documentary was smuggled out of Iran to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. (What Allaer failed to mention is that the flash drive containing the documentary was hidden in a BIRTHDAY CAKE!).
I'll leave you to read Allaer's review but clarify a few points. 1) there are two other people who appear in the "not a film" besides Panahi: his fellow documentarian Mojtapa Miratahmasb who mans the digital camera at one point and the custodian (who Allaer refers to, incorrectly, as a Jafar's friend - he is actually the brother of the normal custodian who is filling in, and apparently Panahi has never met.) and 2) though we hear...

4.5 stars... ordinary film is extraordinary on so many levels
I happened to catch this movie in a theatre in Washington, DC some 4-5 months ago. I had heard about the amazing circumstances surrounding this documentary (more on that later), and couldn't wait to see this for myself.

"This Is Not a Film" (2011 release from Iran; 75 min.) is nothing more, nothing less than Iranian dirctor Jafar Panahi filming life in his apartment on a digital camcorder. Indeed, as Panahi explains to us, he is under house arrest (for reasons not fully explained) and barred from film-making by the Iranian authorities. Panahi has a script written for a new film and with the help of a friend, he decides to read the script to us and live out the script as best as possible in his apartment. Alas, that is not practical (a frustrated Panahi exclaims at one point "If we could tell the film, why make the film?"). In the last part of the film another of Panahi's friends comes to the apartment and the two men simply discuss their daily struggles, and then take out...

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