''This Is Not a Film'' ( fa, In film nist - این فیلم نیست) is an Iranian documentary film by

Jafar Panahi Jafar Panâhi ( fa, جعفر پناهی, ; born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly associated with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an ass ...

and

Mojtaba Mirtahmasb Mojtaba Mirtahmasb ( fa, مجتبی میرطهماسب ; born in 1971) is an Iranian filmmaker and film producer. He co-directed ''This Is Not a Film'' (2011) with Jafar Panahi. Life Mirtahmasb was born in Kerman, Iran in 1971. From 1992 until ...

. It was released on 28 September 2011 in France, distributed by Kanibal Films Distribution.Ceci n'est pas un film
Allocine index. Retrieved 30 September. The film was smuggled from Iran to Cannes on a

flash drive A flash drive is a portable computer drive that uses flash memory. Flash drives are the larger memory modules consisting of a number of flash chips. A flash chip is used to read the contents of a single cell, but it can write entire block of cell ...

hidden inside a birthday cake. It was specially screened at the

2011 Cannes Film Festival The 64th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition. South Ko ...

and later at the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...

, and others. It also took part in the International Competition of the 27th

Warsaw International Film Festival Warsaw Film Festival ( pl, Warszawski Festiwal Filmowy, abbreviated as WFF) is an annual film festival held every October in Warsaw, Poland which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries from all around the world. The festival ha ...

Synopsis

Partly shot on an iPhone, this documentary depicts Panahi's day-to-day life while under house arrest in his apartment. He talks to his family and lawyer (he is appealing his sentence) and reflects on the meaning of filmmaking.

Reception

Review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives a score of 97% based on reviews from 97 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 Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

rated it 90/100 based on 27 reviews. Keith Uhlich of ''

Time Out New York ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...

'' named ''This Is Not A Film'' the sixth-best film of 2012, calling it an "extraordinarily egoless self-profile" and "protest art at its peak." ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' placed it eighth on its list of the best films of 2012. Calling ''This Is Not A Film'' one of the top 10 movies of 2012, critic Ann Hornaday of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' said it "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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' rated ''This Is Not a Film'' the fourth best documentary of 2012, calling it a "brave and witty video diary, an essay on the struggle between political tyranny and the creative imagination." Peter Debruge of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film "a courageous act of nonviolent protest." Deborah Young of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called it "an unusual documentary" that finds a creative solution to Panahi's ban on filmmaking.

Jacques Mandelbaum Jacques Mandelbaum (born 1 May 1958, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French journalist and film critic, currently working for the newspaper ''Le Monde'' which he joined in 1995. He is the author of numerous works on the cinema including a biographical ...

of ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' wrote that the film shows audiences Panahi's courage and dignity. In December 2012 it was

shortlisted A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

as one of 15 films eligible for Best Documentary Feature at the

85th Academy Awards The 85th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2012 in film, films of 2012 and took place on February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, ...

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 2011 films 2011 documentary films Films directed by Jafar Panahi Iranian documentary films Documentary films about human rights Censorship in Iran Film controversies in Iran Mobile phone films 2010s Persian-language films