Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. This is not a film

This cinematographic project shows the daily life of the director Jafar Panahi, who has been sentenced to house arrest and prohibited from filming. It is a document about the situation of the filmmaker deprived of liberty, and also a defense of the value of pure cinema.

This is not a Film is the most recent work of the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was sentenced in 2010 to 20 years of no-filming and no-traveling abroad, because his films were deemed by the courts to attack the Iranian government. Panahi challenges this prohibition with Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, who, with his particular way of seeing and directing from behind the camara, turns Panahi's private world into a space of public representation.

The film goes beyond reflection about the nature of cinema, which is found somewhere between the document and the fiction of documents, and becomes an act of civil disobedience in the filmmaking profession. The film is a document about artistic freedom, but also about the idea, time and function of cinema. This is not a Film also represents a change in a cinematographic tradition as exceptional as that of Iran, in which hermetic poetry gives way to a realism totally devoid of fiction.

The program, organised by Museo Reina Sofía and Casa Árabe, includes, in addition to the screening of This is not a Film at both institutions, a colloquium and a lecture.

Program

February 24
7:30 p.m.
Museo Reina Sofía. Sabatini Building, Auditorium
Pre-premier in Spain and colloquium with Alberto Elena, professor of audiovisual communication at Universidad Carlos III and member of the programming committee of the Cines del Sur film festival in its 2008, 2009 and 2010 editions.
Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. This is not a Film, 2011. Iran, in Farsi with Spanish subtitles, 75’.
Admission is free of charge but tickets must be picked up at the Museum box office in advance, starting on February 22.

February 28
7:30 p.m.
Casa Árabe, Auditorium
Screening.
Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. This is not a Film, 2011. Iran, in Farsi with Spanish subtitles, 75’.
Admission is free of charge but tickets must be picked up at the box office, starting at 7 p.m.

February 29
7:30 p.m.
Casa Árabe, Auditorium
Iran and the political changes occuring in Arab countries
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, professor of international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, specialist in Iranian foreign policy and in that of the Arab-Persian Gulf regimes.
Free admission, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.