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5 items from 2012

7 April 2012 4:48 AM, PDT | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

My penulitmate day at Hkiff 2012 saw lots of frantic reshuffling as I struggled to see the films I really wanted to, while also dealing with the tricky logistics of negotiating the city at high speed. It resulted in a massive win, however, as I caught a film I had previously heard nothng about, based solely on the fact it was at a closer venue, which turned out to be one of the best of the festival!Day 12 (3 April)This Is Not a Film (dir. Jafar Panahi/Mojtaba Mairtahmasb, Iran)Hailed around the world for directing such films as The White Balloon, The Mirror and Offside, Panahi has been arrested and harassed numerous times by Iranian authorities. In late 2010 he was sentenced to 6 years house »

29 March 2012 4:06 PM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Jailed director Jafar Panahi's agonising non-film heaps shame on the Iranian government

"One does not imprison Voltaire," General de Gaulle is reported to have said, in response to a suggestion that Jean-Paul Sartre could be silenced with a jail sentence. If only the Iranian government showed that kind of class. In December 2010, the film-makers and pro-democracy activists Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof were sentenced to six years in prison for alleged crimes against national security. Grotesquely, Jafar Panahi – the director of The White Balloon, Crimson Gold and Offside – was also subject to a 20-year ban on film-making, and forbidden moreover to give interviews or leave the country in that period. With this crass, quasi-Soviet attempt to crush his creativity and humanity, the government disgraced itself in a unique fashion. Hollywood big-hitters have signed petitions, but in the current climate, pressure from the Us could just be counterproductive.

Meanwhile, Panahi »

- Peter Bradshaw

23 March 2012 8:37 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Despite his house arrest, and 20-year ban on making films, the Iranian director has released a movie – the unclassifiable This Is Not a Film, smuggled out of the country in a cake

If one accepts Iran's ruling that Jafar Panahi is no longer a film-maker, then it follows that his latest release is an orphan, unnamed and unclassifiable; a 75-minute yawp in the darkness.

"This Is Not a Film," the opening title assures us, after which we are free to sit back and watch as the Iranian dissident pads distractedly about his Tehran apartment, testing the limits of his cage and implicitly highlighting the absurdity of his situation. The result may well be the most intriguing, quietly compelling non-movie we'll see all year.

In December 2010, Panahi was convicted by Iran's Islamic republic of "making propaganda against the system" and placed under house arrest. He faces a 20-year ban on writing scripts, »

- Xan Brooks

28 February 2012 10:38 AM, PST | Filmmaker Magazine - Blog | See recent Filmmaker Magazine news »

(This Is Not A Film begins a two-week engagement at Film Forum today, courtesy of Palisades Tartan. The movie will then open in other U.S. locations, starting with Los Angeles in early March. Go to the film’s website for details.)

For those unfamiliar with the backstory: Jafar Panahi, one of Iran’s most acclaimed directors (The White Balloon, The Circle, Crimson Gold, Offside), was arrested in 2009. A known supporter of the opposition movement, Panahi was charged with “activity against national security and propaganda activities against the regime.” Despite domestic and international outpourings of support, he was sentenced in 2010 to a six-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban on directing movies, writing screenplays, speaking to the press, or leaving the country—an exceedingly harsh sentence, but one reflective of the Iranian government’s post-2009 crackdown on free expression. Panahi continues to appeal his sentence, but faces the possibility that »

- Nelson Kim

3 February 2012 2:34 AM, PST | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

Director Jafar Panahi is a key figure in Iranian cinema, having made some amazing films during his career like The White Balloon and The Circle. Sadly he was banned from making films for 20 years and placed under house arrest for criticizing his country's ruling regime. In response to this, he made the documentary This Is Not A Film, shot partly on a digital camera and partly using an iPhone. The film was smuggled into France and had a Special Screening at Cannes Film Festival last year. It depicts a day in the life of Panahi while under house arrest in his Tehran apartment. Embedded below is the Us trailer for this special film from the extraordinary filmmaker.                 »

5 items from 2012