Sounds of Silence: A censored Iranian filmmaker says his piece

Iranian director Jafar Panahi's This Is not a Film is a tragic artifact making plain to all of us the brutality and stupidity of the Iranian oligarchy and in fact of all idiots who try to repress the voices of artists. This documentary that claims not to be what it so obviously is represents the end result of political censorship : the art blows up in the face of the tyrant and becomes even more devastating it would have otherwise been. This film is not great in and of itself but becomes great because of the facts that surround it: Iranian government convicted Panahi of making films against the state and sentenced him to 6 years in prison and barred him from making or writing films for 20 years. But he is an artist and thinker and creative soul - and very brave. So, confined to his apartment while his case is on appeal, he sets about making this documentary about a day in his life - with the aid of one of his filmmaker friends, very brave guy whose name appears on the credits and who is photographed in the film (a number of others helped anonymously and the credit are filled with dashes and ellipses, not names). The movie is superficially boring: not a hell of a lot happens. But the subtext is really powerful: Panahi decides to act out a screenplay that he can never film, so he puts some tape on his carpet to demarcate various rooms and walks from "room" to "room" describing the movie, which is and always will be in his head only - ultimately, he breaks down and cries over the sorrow and futility of this desperate and clumsy attempt at expression. The end of the movie is extremely odd and powerful (spoilers here) as Panahi, saying good-night to his friend, opens the door to find the building "janitor" in the hallway, supposedly collecting garbage. He and Panahi engage in a very strained conversation, and it's clear to us that the guy is a cop or a spy - very unsettling, scary, as we see the life that Panahi will lead (unless he can flee from Iran, I guess). It's a great tribute that he could make this film and that brave people smuggled it out of Iran on a flash drive - as pure a documentary about the effects of a regime of censorship - on the artist and on society - as we'll ever see.