“This is a moving, altogether original film that weaves together a series of metaphors and draws us into the life of a courageous man. It's a subtle contribution to the literature of oppression, opposition and prison and to the never-ending discussion of art and its relationship to life.” – Phillip French, The Guardian

In 2010, renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, Offside) received a six-year prison sentence and a twenty-year ban from filmmaking and conducting interviews with foreign press as a result of his open support of the opposition party in Iran's 2009 presidential election. Panahi shares his day-to-day life in this documentary, shot clandestinely in his Tehran apartment by his close friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, and smuggled out of Iran in a cake as a last-minute submission to Cannes. This is Not a Film adheres provisionally to the terms of the state injunction-Panahi did not write a script nor use a full-size camera. Nonetheless, his new video essay is a work of defiance, which has been immediately heralded by the international film community.