This is also a political documentary, but even goes further than Jai Bhim Comrade in terms of taking film as a kind of political act. As Jai Bhim Comrade is a film about the oppressed, the director of This is not a film is the oppressed. He made this film because he was sentenced to a 6-year-imprisonment and a 20-year-ban by the Iranian government,he was under house-arrest during the bail-out. Shooting himself at home is itself a political resistance.
This film is also reflexively about the authenticity of film / documentary. What is real and what is fictitious? At the first part of the film, Panahi set the camera himself probably on a tripod, framing how he had breakfast and talked in phone. He found it problematic as he was “pretending” to be “natural” in front of the camera like a CCTV. He always borne the consciousness of himself directing and acting as long as he did this.…