This Is Not A Film

It's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.

In a statement, the filmmakers said “The reality of being alive and the dream of keeping cinema alive motivated us to go through the existing limitations in Iranian cinema. The existing possibilities in cinema have convinced us that a filmmaker has only himself to blame if he is unable to make films. The discerning nature of art not only paves the way for the artist to overcome problems, but in the process of creativity, it turns every limitation into a subject for work. The unpleasant reality governing Iranian cinema and filmmakers today drove us to not overlook this (perhaps transient) reality and to depict parts of it that were reflected in us.”