The Uncaged Lens: Jafar Panahi's Defiant Cinema

Despite the crippling ban, Panahi's artistic spirit proved irrepressible. He began a remarkable period of clandestine filmmaking that redefined his career and creative process. His first work under the ban, This Is Not a Film (2011), was shot inside his Tehran apartment, depicting a day in his life under house arrest. Smuggled out of Iran on a USB drive hidden inside a cake, the 'non-film' was an urgent, defiant act of cinematic resistance that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.