Jafar Panahi - 2011: This Is Not A Film

2011: This Is Not A Film

In the middle of the controversy and court appeal, Panahi broke the ban imposed on him from making films and made the documentary feature This Is Not a Film in 2011 in collaboration with Iranian filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. This film was made for 3,200 Euros and shot on a prosumer digital camcorder and on an iPhone. It was shot in four days over a ten day period in March 2011 and its title was inspired by René Magritte's painting The Treachery of Images. In the film, Panahi sits in his apartment making phone calls about his court case, watching TV news stories, interacting with his neighbors, talking about his past films and describing scenes from the film that he had begun shooting when he was arrested (much as he had described scenes from films to his sisters as a child). Ten days before the opening of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, This Is Not a Film was announced as a surprise entry into the festival. It was smuggled out of Iran on a USB thumb drive that had been hidden inside a cake. Panahi's wife and daughter attended the festival.