<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In close intratextual connection with earlier pieces of Jafar Panahi’s oeuvre, pre-eminently <italic>The Mirror</italic> (<italic>Ayneh</italic>, 1997) and <italic>Offside</italic> (2006), his recent films made in illegality, including <italic>This Is Not a Film</italic> (<italic>In film nist</italic>, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, 2011), <italic>Closed Curtain</italic> (<italic>Pardeh</italic>, Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi, 2013) and <italic>Taxi Tehran</italic> (Jafar Panahi, 2015), reformulate the relationship between cinema and the “real,” defying the limitations of filmmaking in astounding ways. The paper addresses the issue of non-cinema, pertaining to those instances of cinematic “impurity” in which “the medium disregards its own limits in order to politically interfere with the other arts and life itself” (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_ausfm-2018-0006_ref_015_w2aab3b7b5b1b6b1ab1ac15Aa">Nagib 2016, 132</xref>). Panahi’s overtly confrontational (non-)cinematic discourse is an eminent example of “accented cinema” (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_ausfm-2018-0006_ref_013_w2aab3b7b5b1b6b1ab1ac13Aa">Naficy 2001</xref>). His artisanal and secret use of the camera in deterritorialized conditions and extreme limitations as regards profilmic space – house arrest, fake taxi interior – gives way for multilayered reflexivity, incorporating non-actorial presence, performative self-filming and theatricality as subversive gestures, with a special emphasis on the off-screen and remediated video-orality performed in front of, or directly addressed to the camera. The paper explores the ways in which the filmmaker’s tactics become powerful gestures of “politicized immediacy” (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_ausfm-2018-0006_ref_013_w2aab3b7b5b1b6b1ab1ac13Aa">Naficy 2001</xref>, 6) that call for the (inter)medial as an also indispensably political act ((<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_ausfm-2018-0006_ref_022_w2aab3b7b5b1b6b1ab1ac22Aa">Schröter 2010</xref>).</p></abstract>

In close intratextual connection with earlier pieces of Jafar Panahi’s oeuvre, pre-eminently The Mirror (Ayneh, 1997) and Offside (2006), his recent films made in illegality, including This Is Not a Film (In film nist, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, 2011), Closed Curtain (Pardeh, Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi, 2013) and Taxi Tehran (Jafar Panahi, 2015), reformulate the relationship between cinema and the “real,” defying the limitations of filmmaking in astounding ways. The paper addresses the issue of non-cinema, pertaining to those instances of cinematic “impurity” in which “the medium disregards its own limits in order to politically interfere with the other arts and life itself” (Nagib 2016, 132). Panahi’s overtly confrontational (non-)cinematic discourse is an eminent example of “accented cinema” (Naficy 2001). His artisanal and secret use of the camera in deterritorialized conditions and extreme limitations as regards profilmic space – house arrest, fake taxi interior – gives way for multilayered reflexivity, incorporating non-actorial presence, performative self-filming and theatricality as subversive gestures, with a special emphasis on the off-screen and remediated video-orality performed in front of, or directly addressed to the camera. The paper explores the ways in which the filmmaker’s tactics become powerful gestures of “politicized immediacy” (Naficy 2001, 6) that call for the (inter)medial as an also indispensably political act ((Schröter 2010).

The Camera in House Arrest. Tactics of Non-Cinema in Jafar Panahi’s Films

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Camera in House Arrest. Tactics of Non-Cinema in Jafar Panahi\u2019s Films"}

In close intratextual connection with earlier pieces of Jafar Panahi’s oeuvre, pre-eminently The Mirror (Ayneh, 1997) and Offside (2006), his recent films made...

The Camera in House Arrest. Tactics of Non-Cinema in Jafar Panahi’s Films

Published Online: Oct 16, 2018

Page range: 103 - 123

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ausfm-2018-0006

Keywords
Jafar Panahi’s films, non-cinema, reflexivity, intermediality, orality

© 2018 Judit Pieldner, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Camera in House Arrest. Tactics of Non-Cinema in Jafar Panahi’s Films

Published Online: Oct 16, 2018

Page range: 103 - 123

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ausfm-2018-0006

KeywordsJafar Panahi’s films, non-cinema, reflexivity, intermediality, orality

© 2018 Judit Pieldner, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Jafar Panahi’s films, non-cinema, reflexivity, intermediality, orality