Reviews
The Financial Times
Nigel Andrews
“The not-film becomes not-form, a liberated, humanising bricolage of serendipitous incident: the prowling pet iguana Igi, phone calls to lawyer or family, fireworks seen from a balcony, finally a young apartment-block neighbour whom the director joins on a trash-collecting tour. This tour ends on the ground floor, where the view of blazing fires outside the gates may be pyrotechnics gone pistol-happy but also seem threateningly, emblematically apocalyptic.”
22/03/2012
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The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“Panahi's title hints at the Magrittean absurdity of what he has to do to get round the law. Technically, it is the work of its cameraman Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, and Panahi is not being "interviewed" but rather speaking lines, like an actor, on the subject of film-making. The result is a heartbreaking, agonising study of loneliness ... He tries and fails to look after a neighbour's querulous pet dog, which he has to return to its owner because it is upsetting his pet iguana, Igi. His wry sense of humour is impressive, and his elegant dignity is profoundly moving.”
29/03/2012
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The Independent on Sunday
Jonathan Romney
“Critics have sometimes, unfairly, ranked the realist Panahi below his former employer Abbas Kiarostami, who has special auteur cachet as a formal innovator. Panahi has seemed less experimental, until now. His new work plays mischievous games with our idea of what a film is – while being a very direct and compelling statement about his current plight ... a superb piece of cinema, and something that's not cinema – passionate resistance, a humorous cri de coeur, a message in a bottle sent to the world, and a way for Panahi to keep his hand in.”
01/04/2012
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The Observer
Philip French
“There is unlikely to be a wittier, braver, more serious film shown in Britain this year than the 51-year-old Iranian director Jafar Panahi's This is Not a Film. Made while under house arrest in Tehran using an iPhone and a digital video camera, it's an act of defiance in the face of the arbitrary, vindictive, capricious, utterly humourless regime of the ayatollahs and President Ahmadinejad. ”
25/03/2012
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The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“The film, smuggled out to France in a cake, was a late submission at Cannes last year, and a tasty treat it is.”
30/03/2012
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The Daily Telegraph
Tim Robey
“What it all adds up to is a ruefully witty essay on what does or does not constitute cinema: Jean-Luc Godard grapples endlessly with these debates, but Panahi’s invigorating directness cuts to the chase.”
30/03/2012
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Time Out
Cath Clarke
“What a waste: here’s a filmmaker in his prime resorting to make-believe directing in his front room. But Panahi won’t be stopped. He’s constantly pointing the video on his iPhone at whatever’s in view ... What’s worth mentioning is how unexpectedly funny a lot of this is. You haven’t seen a scenery-chewing, scene-stealing supporting role until you’ve seen Igi, Panahi’s four-foot long iguana, slithering diva-like into shot.”
29/03/2012
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The Times
Kate Muir
“Panahi, “like hairdressers who do each other’s hair when there are no customers” can’t help but pick up a camera and poke fun at censorship, and he makes an extraordinary mini-movie in the elevator with the student who takes out the rubbish in his apartment building, as fires burn outside in the streets.”
30/03/2012
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Total Film
Tom Dawson
“Its firework-laden finale shows how cinema thrives on spontaneity.”
19/03/2012
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The Sunday Times
Louis Wise
“Some would struggle to call this a film at all (no plot, little structure); yet this essay of sorts, sometimes witty, often moving, is essential to film’s concerns. ”
01/04/2012
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The New Statesman
Ryan Gilbey
“Even as he mourns his captivity, [Panahi] creates a barbed and instructive film-making masterclass, a Day For Night in miniature. While This Is Not a Film is ultimately a work of defiance, its humour shouldn't be overlooked. ”
29/03/2012
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The Evening Standard
The Evening Standard
“No, this is not a film in the orthodox sense. But it is better than many pieces of work that confidently claim to be.”
20/03/2012
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