Renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s documentary, “This Is Not A Film”, will show on campus Thursday.

Panahi’s documentary, which was an official selection of The Cannes Film Festival along with The New York Film Festival, has generated an impressive amount of support among the filmmaking community for the gaining of simple rights in Iran and other politically corrupt countries.

Banned from filmmaking and conducting interviews because of his open support of the opposition party to the Iranian government in 2009, Panahi’s film surrounds his time in house arrest while appealing his six-year prison sentence. He cleverly titled the piece to assure the audience that he was not breaking the terms of his sentence.

The documentary focuses on the problem of censorship within media and how art cannot be contained, especially in time of the greatest opposition.

“It’s important that we are aware of things that happen outside of Knoxville, and even the United States,” Katrina Roberts, freshman in English, said. “The idea that so serious a punishment can be enforced for something that we take for granted is interesting, and it would be good for us as students to see something a little radical.”

Having been primarily shot on an iPhone, the audience will get a grittier and more involved perspective on the situation as a whole along with the exposing of the social injustices dealt to Panahi. With help from his friends, Panahi completed filming and sent his work off to The Cannes Film Festival in a cake to avoid any speculation or suspicion.

Emily Widelock, sophomore in food science, said that the movie could be an opportunity to broaden students’ perspective of films.

“Some people take making movies for granted and it’s important to see how different other cultures are, their politics and rules and stuff,” Widelock said.

The film will show in the University Center Auditorium at 7 p.m., and is free to all students with a valid UT student ID.