By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Jafar Panahi
Starring: Jafar Panahi
Original language title: Taxi
Country: iran
Year: 2016
Running time: 82
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4359416/reference
Bruce says: “So cleverly crafted is Jafar Panahi’s TAXI that it could easily be mistaken for a documentary. Winner of the 2015 Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, TAXI is another creative response from Panahi (THIS IS NOT A FILM, CLOSED CURTAIN) who is banned from making films in Iran yet manages to find unique ways to circumvent political constraints. For a day Panahi becomes a taxi driver and picks up one fare after another who create a mosaic of the current Iranian culture. 4.5 cats”
Thom says: “Iranian director Jafar Panahi has a fine international reputation although, admittedly, he hadn’t done much for me in his work. I wasn’t a fan of THE WHITE BALLOON, THE CIRCLE, THIS IS NOT A FILM, or CLOSED CURTAIN. But a friend of my brother recommended the film highly so I took a chance and I’m very glad I did. Panahi has had enormous trouble with the government in Iran and, in fact, he has been banned from making films, leaving the country, or giving interviews. Nonetheless, since the ban he has continued to make films and here under the guise of being a taxi driver Panahi drives around Tehran picking up people that easily pass as ordinary Iranian citizens, to the point that the viewer amusingly toys with the idea that this indeed is a documentary. But at the end of the film the hounded director gives away none of his cast, so they won’t be condemned by the nasty officials. Somehow the illusion of reality is extraordinarily captured making this an incisive, sporadically outrageous, open criticism of the government. A remarkable cast plays their parts to perfection. 5 cats“