Closed Curtain arrives with more than its share of baggage. Do yourself a favor and spend a few moments reading up on filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s plight before taking in his movie. The Iranian government has placed the master director under house arrest for six years — with an additional 20-year ban on participating in any part of the filmmaking process — on the grounds that he freely pursued artistic expression. Panahi can’t stop making movies. It’s as if he’s physically incapable of setting aside a camera. Any camera! Closed Curtain follows This is Not a Film as the second self-reflective movie-within-a-movie the director has produced while in exile, and what he achieves with a cell phone and consumer-grade video equipment will awe and inspire. (2013) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.