“Jafar Panahi’s Taxi” (or “Taxi Tehran”, 2015), got filmed
despite the director’s formal ban by the Iranian government from shooting films
and traveling, and his niece (Hana Saeidi) had to accept an award for him at
the Berlin Film Festival. And, no, this film is not as menacing as Martin Scorsese's classic "Taxi Driver".
Jafar drives around Tehran and picks up and converses with
passengers, whom he seems to have some "background-story" connection with. Gradually, the film progresses toward some
gumshoeing (after turning down progressively narrower streets) at a major
monument in Tehran at the end, when the screen will go blank.
The first major pickup
is a man struck by a car, going to a hospital, and his wailing wife. Afterwards he picks up his own niece, who
talks about what kind of filmmaking is actually permitted by her “teacher” as
she shoots video. Gradually we learn
more about Jafar’s own identity as a filmmaker, and the idea that the
government wants to control it for ideological purposes (the way the Soviets
wanted to control classical music). No wonder he makes a living as a cab driver. Soon he picks up a female lawyer who has been disbarred. She sounds so jolly despite
her own catastrophes.
The characters seem relatively unconcerned about the
intrusive government, and in some ways city life looks amazingly normal. Most of the film was shot necessarily in inconspicuous
places, away from major landmarks. Most
of the buildings are unremarkable, with low-rise apartments common. Small
businesses flourished everywhere, just as in western cities. But many townhomes seem to be gated
separately.
Toronto Film Festival site is here (Kono Lorber is the theatrical distributor).
I saw this at the Landmark E Street before a fair Sunday
afternoon audience.
Wikipedia attribution link for picture of a tax in Tehran by
Orijentolog under Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 License.
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