News

Politically outspoken Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi — banned from
making movies — co-directs a documentary about his life under house
arrest. The film was reportedly smuggled out of Iran in a cake.

Depending on your point of view, "This Is Not a Film" both is and isn't a
film. What it is for sure is the only kind of film its co-director
Jafar Panahi can make for now.

Panahi is not just one of Iran's
top filmmakers, he is its most politically outspoken, director of such
works as "Offside," "The Circle" and "Crimson Gold" that deal even more
directly than the Oscar-winning "A Separation" with the restrictions placed on ordinary life by that country's political leadership.

Partly for that reason Panahi
was hit hard by the Iranian government in 2010: He was sentenced to six
years in prison and banned for 20 years from filmmaking or even
conducti... >>>