Saturday, March 2, 2013

This Is Not a Film (2011) (اين فيلم نيست)

Director(s): Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Jafar Panahi. Cast: Jafar Panahi. 77 min. Not Rated. Iran. Documentary.

A day in the life of "dissident" Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who awaits the appeal results of his 20-year ban on filmmaking (and 6-year prison sentence); hence, the film's title. Since he's not banned from reading screenplays, he decides to literally read his last un-filmed one live on camera, but then realizes that doesn't make sense, because film is an extension of real life, and a ban on filmmaking is a ban on life itself. Interesting concept, but I found this more to be Panahi's plea of self-pity, and that hurts the film's power to seduce.

PS: Ebert was affected more by the film than I was. I seriously wasn't moved by the ending.

Mo says:



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