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. Panahi thought it was like lying to the viewers, so he called a friend to his place and took the place of a director. He used his own work Ayneh (1997) to explain the issue of reality and fiction as shown and confused in film. He also tried to talk about his “next” work (if only he was allowed to make it) in front of the camera, but he stopped soon, saying “If we can talk a film, why make a film?”
I think Ayneh as as example, and the rest of this house-arrest film are kind of responding his own question. There is so many things out of control about a film. Ayneh is a child film, the little actress suddenly refused acting during the filming, and she just headed back home. Pahahi just followed her and made that process a part of the film. For the the production of a documentary, it is apparent that unexpected incidents always occur. The pet lizard in his house walked and climbed around, the neighbor suddenly knocked the door and asked Panahi to look after her little dog, and the coincident appearance of a young dustman are moments that were out of control, but these moments have enriched the contents of the film. Actually the political oppression is also out of control from the point of view of Panahi; and Panahi was out of control in the government's eyes. This is not a film has shown how letting things out of control can be a kind of political resistance.
