This Is Not A Film review

Smuggled out of Iran on a USB stick, this brave, poignant film charts a day in the life of writer/director Jafar Panahi.

Banned from filmmaking for two decades and appealing against a six-year prison sentence for alleged anti-government activities, Panahi turns the camera on himself in his Tehran apartment.

We also meet co-director Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, a pet iguana and a cheerful rubbish-collecting student.

Drawing on revealing clips from Panahi’s previous films, TINAF reveals not only the realities of artistic censorship, but its firework-laden finale shows how cinema thrives on spontaneity.