“Taxi”: An innovative attempt and a deep insight in the Iranian society.
A film review written and published in Greek for kulturosoupa.gr on 3.12.2016.
Sometimes important cinema is born through constrains and restrictions. With his film Taxi, Jaffar Panahi proves exactly that. Living in exile the Iranian director Jaffar Panahi is not allowed to work with film in his country or travel abroad. Without special cameras or fancy edits, one can enter through his lens the Iranian society and view everyday life with humor and lightness.
Taxis was shot as a game of hide and seek, with cameras installed inside a Taxi driven across Teheran by the director himself. The camera-eye records the routes, the people and the funny encounters that take place inside the vehicle on an everyday life basis. The director meets men and women, young and old, poor and rich, controversial and old-fashioned personalities, illegal video distributors and supporters of the human rights. A wide range of characters that coexist in contemporary Iran, pass through the taxi and the camera-lens. The camera captures everything, the madness, the funny incidents and the everyday disturbances in an innovative spontaneous way.
Jaffar Panahi manages to open a window for the rest of the world to see the hidden secrets and the beating heart of contemporary life in Teheran. Consistent of small, spontaneous and often funny parts that are tied up together in a well-constructed unity, Taxi is a film that criticizes the Iranian society through the voices of its own people. Although the aesthetics are left behind resembling funny candid camera videos, Panahi manages to glue together smaller sketches in a consistent whole. Funny and moving, Panahi’s film describes everyday life in a clear, honest way, full of love and understanding, creating a shuttering and enjoyable film experience. The movie manages to challenge the role of film, video and representation in the Iranian society, creating a concrete and multidimensional portrait of the city itself.
To sum up, if you got tired of Iranian realism and heavy, deep dramatic movies, then this movie is a perfect choice. Panahi uses his restrictions and constrains to expose not only himself but his own country, through the narratives and encounters of the public. “Taxi” is an excellent and well tied collection of stories, with a documentary vibe and lots of humor that offers a glimpse in the intestines of the Iranian daily life. With a simple, penetrating and politically critical lens, Panahi uses film as a mirror of the contemporary moment. After all, cinema doesn’t always need effects and groundbreaking stories. Sometimes cinema can just tell the truth and offer a glance of a faraway reality.
