This is not a Film

Director:  Jafar Panahi
Releasing in cinemas: 10 November 2011
Rated: G

The repression of freedom of the cinema in Iran has made world headlines, and should concern us all. In a fearful case of life imitating art, Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr was recently arrested in Tehran, sentenced to one year's jail and an inhuman ninety lashes for appearing with her head shaved in the South Australian produced film My Tehran For Sale.  Filmmakers depicting Iran in an unfavorable light, according to the regime, are summarily removed with arrests and subsequent jail sentences. One such is internationally acclaimed Iranian writer/director Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon), who made this secret video during his house arrest with the impending threat of a long jail term.

Smuggled out on a USB drive inside a cake from Tehran to France, this home video (often in static shots),  takes us through a typical day in Panahi's house arrest, starting with breakfast. He lives in a comfortable upper middle class apartment, views from his window reveal a typical thriving city, with a large construction site nearby. Ominous sounds like gunfire or fireworks punctuate the background. 

Panahi calls a friend and fellow filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb on his mobile, who will come over and spend the day filming with Panahi in his apartment. Panahi also has a chat on the phone with his lawyer, anxious as to how his appeal against a 6-year jail sentence is faring in the courts - not very well it seems. Next Panahi wants to tell us the story of a film he's not been permitted to make, as there’s a 20 year ban on his writing or directing films.

Panahi walks and talks us through part of the proposed film before saying “If we could tell a film, then why make the film” and leaves off, turning to other matters. Admittedly this retelling was somewhat obscure. Things brighten up considerably when we are introduced his daughter's pet Igi. Expecting it might be a cat or even a monkey, Igi turns out to be a charismatic iguana, which steals the show while it's on screen. I can see a rush on pet shops to get one.

The camera follows Panahi as he continues through the day, an encounter with a yapping dog’s owner, and later a garbage collector. He runs clips from his films on a large screen TV and discusses them. In fairness it's all loosely tied together and not a lot happening. Much depends on Panahi's charm and passion for freedom of the cinema to take us through the prosaic bits of his everyday restricted life. As he says on camera “I'm not sure what we've been doing”. This is a well-intentioned, brave, and heartfelt attempt to show what  house arrest means to a creative film director. The story of the USB being smuggled out of Iran would have made an interesting sidebar.

While the meandering content of the documentary may not greatly move you, the message behind it surely will.  Here's a passionate, talented filmmaker unable to work because he has fallen from favour with Iranian authorities. As a footnote, Panahi's appeal against his 6 year prison sentence was squashed, sadly it seems he will now serve that time.

This is not a Film will have its Australian premiere at the Brisbane International Film Festival, and a limited commercial release thereafter. It’s a beacon of light in the suppression of free speech, and rights of the individual. 

John Bale