GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

coldglance Closed Curtain ("The Movie") unrolls tactfully an intramingled flow of mind games and the real scenario of the director in an ingenious sense that the audience is highly confused to recognise this bilayer of plot line.It surprisingly bundles the audience up with the feeling of being lost in a labyrinth within the overwhelming atmosphere of sanctions imposed by the oppressing political regime reigning in Persia. Walking hypnotizedly to the rough Caspian Sea may be a sarcastic symbol to yearn for salvation; the movie, however, leaves the audience with an open question of whether the events virtually happened when they watch the final scenes of the movie which are almost alike with the ones in the opening scene.

Sergeant_Tibbs I knew from This Is Not A Film that Jafar Panahi is not an ordinary filmmaker. Maybe he was beforehand, but at least now is different. He bends the lines between fiction and documentary in a way I've never seen before, in both artistic and expositional ways. The first 15 minutes of Closed Curtain is some of the most expressionistic filmmaking of the year as co-director Kambuzia Partovi silently closes curtains symbolising the oppressive isolation, physically and mentally, Panahi must feel under house arrest. Unfortunately, the film stumbles in the introduce of drama. There's little believable in the execution of the young criminal couple who disrupt the writer. Then it takes a really interesting turn. The way Panahi manifests the difference between this fictional story and his own pathos is fascinating and crushing. If it didn't have that emotional frustration to it, and recursion that his own writing is being disrupted, then it wouldn't work. Clunkiness in the filmmaking and ambiguity in certain sequences leave it feeling incomplete but Closed Curtain certainly meets This Is Not A Film's match when it comes to unexpected thoughtfulness.7/10

kosmasp While the situation Panahi currently is living by, is crazy at least and not worthy of a man of his class (considering his movie about women and soccer/football a few years ago), him trying to make a movie about it (even though he actually isn't allowed to, which in itself does not make any sense) does not entirely succeed. At least that is how I felt about it, but others seem to have found things they liked.And I hope the rating represents what people feel about the movie and is not just a support for Panahi. I'm pretty sure there are better ways to show that. Although showing this movie at the Berlin Film Festival hopefully did help him rather than brought him into a situation where he might have more to worry about. Whatever the case, the movie starts off with one thing and goes off into another direction. And while the mind can be deceiving like that and it's obviously a metaphor (story-wise and framing wise), this doesn't succeed to pull you in (if you excuse the pun)

Radu_A When the world's most famous banned-from-work film-maker manages to defy the authorities which imposed the ban, and for the second time in the row, one cannot help but admire so much courage and the film in question automatically becomes an event. Unlike his previous documentary/essay 'This is not a film', which was smuggled out of Iran on a USB stick inside a cake, 'Pardé' lists actor/screenwriter Kambozia Partovi as co-director, so technically, Panahi didn't violate the ban; Partovi was, not surprisingly, awarded the Silver Bear for best screenplay.Naturally there was a lot of anticipation at the Berlinale regarding 'Pardé', and just as naturally quite a few critics were disappointed with the result, which they described as being too cryptic. However, if you know Panahi's works, it will come as no surprise to you that 'Pardé' contains many symbols and metaphors which require much thinking, elaboration, and may be interpreted in contradicting, yet equally relevant ways.As for the story: an elderly man arrives at a seaside villa and immediately proceeds to cover the windows with black cloth, so that no light can be seen from outside. He then releases a cute little dog from his sports bag... why did he keep it there? I'd humbly ask future reviewers from abstaining to describe the story much further, for this is one of those films which can only be enjoyed when you do not know too much about them. 'Pardé', filmed within three days, is a marvel of psychological film making and easily the most personal film Panahi has ever done. The only film I remember in which a film-maker conveys so much of his interior to the spectator would be Polanski's 'Le Locataire'. Of course, Panahi's film, shot on a shoestring budget inside his own holiday house, cannot compare in terms of visual opulence, but given the modest means at his disposal, it manages to share a surprisingly vast scope of ideas and emotions - if you are familiar with his situation and previous work. If you are not, there's a good chance that you will find this film too opaque.