This Is Not a Film

In 2010, Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi was arrested and later convicted for producing propaganda detrimental to the Islamic Republic. He faced six years' imprisonment and a 20-year ban on writing or directing motion pictures. While awaiting an appeal verdict, Panahi invited Mojtaba Mirtahmasb to help him shoot a non-film that honoured the terms of his house arrest. Given the risks involved, the content and quality of the material is almost an irrelevance. But such is Panahi's ingenuity in commenting upon his situation and the realities of life under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership that it quickly becomes clear that this exercise is as acute as it is courageous. In addition to playing all the parts while reading out his screenplay about a girl being barred from university by her conservative parents, Panahi also shares scenes with a pet iguana, a barking dog, a food delivery boy, a rubbish collector and some new year fireworks. Smuggled to Europe on a memory stick hidden inside a cake, this is an audacious act of defiance that amuses, dismays and provokes.