Rating of
4/4
This is THE Film
SIngli6 - wrote on 05/15/21
There is no greater pathos in this world than a free spirit admitting defeat to a bully. Noted filmmaker Jafar Panahi, a political prisoner under the thumb of the theocratic Iranian regime, play acts within his apartment the major beats of a screenplay he could not film; a story for which he is so enthusiastic he has staked his reputation and liberty on it. He gets through the first scene, then hesitates a moment. Utterly deflated, he asks 'If we could tell a film, then why make a film?'
That line hit a nerve with me. Every film-maker feels this to varying degrees. Panahi's experience is as bad as it gets, save for the hypothetical artist facing death itself as the possible consequence of self-expression. Nothing I have experienced compares to this man, but at its base I know what it feels to want to have something to say to the world and lacking the means to say it.
It is then with the greatest irony that Panahi, anxious about being inauthentic every step of the way, records a 78-minute video diary with fellow filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb that manages to convey so many facets of his person that you come away feeling like you actually know the man. I am simply in awe of Panahi's ability to communicate what he does with the camera. The film's final scene, ostensibly an awkward conversation with a landlord in a elevator, has enough drama, humour, terror, and even action to take any other 2010s movie to the cleaner's.
Perhaps the most glorious thing about this film though is that its mere existence is an act of defiance from a victim against a group of bullies, passing themselves off as a government. Panahi remains free in spirit, but still lacks many of the rights of self-determination a peaceful citizen of any country deserves. And he is comparably lucky compared to so many oppressed within Iran and virtually every other government around the globe. It's easy to understand why we have laws that try to minimise harm for all citizens, but unless there is a direct causal link between an act and harm, no law should ever exist that can deprive a person of liberty or a chance at self-actualisation for the mere expression of an opinion.
