A scene from ‘This is not a film’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
this is not a movie is not a film; This is something bigger – a scathing critique of the Iranian regime through the lens of a camera mounted in a prisoner’s house.
In December 2010, Zafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly “propaganda against the system” and 20 years for directing any films, writing scripts, giving interviews with Iranian or foreign media, and leaving the country. The ban was imposed. In the wake of his sentence, Panahi directed the 2011 docu-feature this is not a movie,
Twelve years after the film was smuggled out of Iran – on a USB drive tucked inside a cake – to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it continues to grow in relevance by giving a voice to the oppressed fighting a violent regime in silence. In 2022, Iran’s streets are sealed after protests against the killing of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the country’s morality police, putting prominent public figures and dissidents of the government behind bars. Panahi was one of them. In light of a new movement when Iran is ruled by repressive law, his 2011 masterpiece keeps its spirit alive.
This is not a movie (Persian)
Director: Mojtaba Mirthamsab, Jafar Panahi
runtime: 75 minutes
mould: Zafar Panahi
Summary: Iranian filmmaker Zafar Panahi has created a video diary in response to threats from his government.
Documenting a day in his life, Panahi turns around the law to direct his friend Mojtaba Mirthamseb while he plays an actor, showing how intangible and fluid life is when immersed in celluloid . Occasionally, Mirthumsb is careful to remind him of his character when he shouts “cut” out of habit.
Over the course of 75 minutes, Panahi stretches and plays with the meaning and definition of cinema. In an age when cinema is struggling to survive within the confines of rules and permissions, Panahi makes the medium his message.
A scene from ‘This is not a film’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
He builds and breaks a film. In one sequence, Panahi narrates the script of a film he could never make – a film about a student who is accepted into a university but is unable to pursue his dreams because of the dogmatism he is facing. The family she is born into denies her access to freedom. Her script casts itself as an allegory of her situation of being imprisoned in a house plagued by the sounds of police sirens and gunfire, but she is flexible in her need to bring the young girl’s story to the fore. He tries to set the scene in his living room with the help of a rug and some tapes to help the audience visualize his room and begins to narrate the screenplay. Overwhelmed by his inability to exercise his craft, he is moved to tears and asks aloud “If we can tell a movie, why make a movie.”
Calls from his lawyer interrupt his filming and more often than not, the news pushes him further into despair. He hangs out in his empty house with his pet iguana, eats little and talks about cinema. He shows his films on television and recalls moments when his actors improvised to define their characters and how he let them go; He finds solace in the past when the cameras could be rolling.
Towards the end, we see a student who is the building’s temporary ‘garbage collector’ and asks what Panahi is doing with his phone and why he has an expensive camera recording on his desk – he smartly confronts Panahi. In the process, the director leaves his house and goes into the elevator with the student. The student draws a picture of the lives of the people living in the apartment by looking at the contents and volume of their garbage bags.
While Panahi does not transcend the four walls of his apartment, the film camera gives him the courage to step out of the four walls of his home and understand the people who live around him.
This Is Not A Movie is streaming now on MUBI