MOVIE REVIEW: This is Not A Film

This movie asks a lot of questions and doesn’t really answer any of them, but that’s not a bad thing. It makes the viewer more skeptical of films in general, which makes them more discerning viewers. It makes them ask the fundamental question of “How does this film do what it does?”

Well, what this film does is show an afternoon in the life of Jafar Panahi, who at the time was under house arrest. He was awaiting the results of the appeal he made of a sentence that forbade him from writing a screenplay or directing a movie, and also gave him some time in prison. How much time is being determined by the courts. In the mean time, Panahi has nothing to do but watch his old movies and think about the film he never got to make.

Just watching him hang out sounds pretty boring, and it could have been. I know of other directors who would really have leaned into the whole boredom angle, let you feel every minute of nothing happening. But Panahi isn’t interested in making that kind of film.

Panahi, and Iranian film in general loves to be skeptical about film, to be “meta” in other words. They let you peek behind the scenes to show how a film is made, and make you ask questions like: “Can film convey reality?” “What are the elements of film that I haven’t been noticing?” and “Who is responsible for the resulting film?” Panahi’s film is no exception, though it asks more specific questions like “What is the job of a director?” “What is a film?” and “If you can tell a film, why make a film?” It also asks the question “Can I get an iguana?” (Panahi’s iguana is named Igi and he’s adorable)

Anyways, the question about telling a film comes up when Panahi is describing a film that he wants to make, but can’t due to circumstances. He supplies visuals, a layout of the shooting location, everything you’d need to create a picture in your mind of this film. So why make it, if he can just tell it? Like a lot of this film’s questions this is left unanswered.

The job of director, seems to be the ability to say “cut.” Or at least that’s a major job. Panahi talks about actors who act “beyond his control” and how setting can make an actor act well without any directing. A lot of the feel of the film also comes from the editing, not the direction. The only time the cameraman chastises him for directing, violating his ban, is when he says “cut.” Is that all a director does, in the end?

The biggest question this film makes the viewer ask, which is somewhat answered, is “What is real?” Well, at the end of the day you can be skeptical of a lot of this movie. A lot of the scenes seem staged, and there’s some strange editing going on, but there are a few facts that remain indisputable: Panahi is going to prison for making his art, and his art is only thing that seems to make him really excited. Second, Tehran is burning just outside his apartment. Everything else is just window dressing.

4/5 Definitely do a bit of research before checking this out. Not as boring as it could have been.