Nisha Rathode (Editor)

This Is Not a Film

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Writer
  
Jafar Panahi

Screenplay
  
Jafar Panahi

Country
  
Iran

7.6/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Documentary

Initial DVD release
  
January 31, 2012 (Canada)

Duration
  

Language
  
Persian

This Is Not a Film movie poster

Director
  
Jafar Panahi Mojtaba Mirtahmasb

Release date
  
May 20, 2011 (2011-05-20) (Cannes)

Initial release
  
September 28, 2011 (France)

Directors
  
Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb

Cast
  
Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb

Similar movies
  
Related Jafar Panahi movies

This Is Not a Film (Persian: In film nist - این فیلم نیست‎‎) is an Iranian documentary film by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. It was released on 28 September 2011 in France, distributed by Kanibal Films Distribution. The film was smuggled from Iran to Cannes in a flash drive hidden inside a birthday cake. It was specially screened at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and later at the New York Film Festival, and others. It also took part in the International Competition of the 27th Warsaw International Film Festival.

Contents

This Is Not a Film movie scenes

This is not a film official trailer 1 jafar panahi movie 2012 hd


Synopsis

This Is Not a Film movie scenes

Panahi is under house arrest, awaiting the result of his appeal of a six-year prison sentence and twenty-year ban on film-making, leaving the country or giving media interviews for "propaganda against the regime". Bored and desperate that this verdict may mean his artistic death, he starts documenting his life. He begins filming himself in his apartment, then calls his friend and collaborator, Mirtahmasb, who arrives at the apartment and takes over the camera. Banned from film making and determined to save at least some of his artistic visions, Panahi reads some of the scenario from the movie he was planning to make. Upon hearing fireworks marking the ancient Iranian festival Chaharshanbe Suri that precedes the Persian new year, Nouruz, and other suspicious noises resembling gunshots, he gets scared and quickly stops this project. He turns on the TV to hear the news. We see news about the tsunami in Japan and later it is announced that Iran's supreme leader has banned any fireworks and bonfires that used to mark Chaharshanbe Suri.

This Is Not a Film movie scenes

After Mr. Mirtahmasb's departure, Panahi takes his friend's camera and starts chatting with the boy who collects the litter in the apartment block since one of his relatives was not able to come that day, Panahi asks him questions about his life and plans for the future. This conversation takes places in the claustrophobic scenery of a lift, as the boy goes down from floor to floor and every so often gets out of the lift to do his job. The movie ends with the boy putting the trash can out on the street, as revelers throw gasoline on a fire. While Panahi watches and shoots video from the ramp leading down to his building's underground garage (as far, it seems, as he dare go), the boy jumps over the fire taking part in the celebration.

Reception

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Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives a score of 98% based on reviews from 88 critics, with an average rating of 8.9/10, and the site's consensus is: "Through simple means and filming, This is Not a Film presents a vital political statement and a snapshot of life in Iran as enemy of the state." Metacritic rated it 90/100 based on 27 reviews.

Sight & Sound film magazine listed it as number eight on its list of the best film of 2012. Calling This Is Not A Film one of the top 10 movies of 2012, critic Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post said the film "uses Brechtian staging, blurred lines between documentary and drama, and an iPhone to explore the notion of physical and political boundaries, the aesthetic and technological contours of cinema, and the enduring power of self-expression." Critic A. O. Scott of The New York Times rated This Is Not a Film the fourth best documentary of 2012. He called the film a "brave and witty video diary, an essay on the struggle between political tyranny and the creative imagination." Peter Debruge of Variety called the film "a courageous act of non-violent protest." Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter called it "an unusual documentary" that finds a creative solution to Panahi's ban on filmmaking. Jacques Mandelbaum of Le Monde wrote that the film shows audiences Panahi's courage and dignity. In December 2012, it was shortlisted as one of 15 films eligible for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards.

References

This Is Not a Film Wikipedia
This Is Not a Film IMDb This Is Not a Film themoviedb.org