This Is Not a Film
“If we could tell a film, then why make a film?”
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.
A stark, quiet testament to artistic defiance. It feels like a whispered conversation, a defiant act of creation under immense pressure, capturing the weight of waiting and the enduring spirit of a filmmaker.
