This Is Not a Film(In Film Nist)

This is not a film. How could it be, when Panahi is sentenced to a six-year jail term and a 20-year ban on making films? While awaiting the verdict of his appeal, his passion for filmmaking transforms all restrictions, turning a day in his life under house arrest into artistic materials. Putting himself under the camera of his fellow documentary filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, he reads aloud the script of his banned film and demonstrates it in an agonsing scene. A quietly compelling statement of creative freedom, it’s at once an uncompromising testament to his belief in cinema. But what you see is just a personal video diary. Because, after all, it is not a film.

USA National Society of Film Critics Awards: Experimental Film Award