TUESDAY 9/19. Riverdale 10 VIP Cinema. 7 p.m.
In 2010, Iranian director Jafar Panahi was convicted of “assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” the culmination of a career-long conflict with the Iranian government regarding the content of his films. He was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from filmmaking for 20 years. Though he was able to skirt the jail time, the ban remains. His last several films have been made illegally, including 2011’s “This Is Not a Film,” which was famously smuggled out of the country on a thumb drive concealed within a cake.
This month, the Arkansas Times Film Series will screen “The Mirror” (1997). It’s Panahi’s second feature, about a young girl with a broken arm whose mother is supposed to meet her at the bus stop after school but doesn’t show up. As she navigates her way home through the bustle of Tehran, the narrative structure of the film ruptures. The child playing Mira breaks the fourth wall, rips off her headscarf and arm cast, and declares she doesn’t want to act anymore, leaving it up to the crew to decide how to respond.
Tickets are available here.
