Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) – J. Panahi

Jafar Panahi is serving a twenty-year ban from making films in Iran due to his willingness to make films that offend the government.  Since the ban was imposed he has creatively continued to make films but without a crew and previously in the safety of his own home (e.g., This is Not a Film, 2011).  This time, he has installed cameras in his car and taken on the role of taxi driver to film on the streets of Tehran.  Taking his cues from Abbas Kiarostami (who passed away after a botched operation in 2016) who often filmed actors (or non-actors) in cars (e.g., Taste of Cherry, 1997; Ten, 2002), Panahi has filmed himself carting people around and their conversations and experiences make up the content of the film.  It is sometimes difficult to know whether the dialogue is scripted or not, and, if scripted, what its inclusion signifies.  But it is clear that this is an act of resistance, because the episodes clearly reveal the political intolerance and human rights violations that are present in Iranian society.  These problems are made explicit when Panahi’s young “niece” (the actors remain anonymous to protect them), under the pretense of a class assignment on film-making, lists all of the content that is forbidden from movies, including any discussion of economic or political problems as well as the inclusion of characters with Persian names wearing ties (!!!).  Naturally, such a character soon appears!  At the end, Panahi films a discussion with a presumed well-known actress or lawyer (hard to say) about the actual violations that the current film represents. An earlier discussion of the death penalty and its imposition for minor crimes now fits into place; let’s hope that Panahi’s high profile (and the wide circulation of this film) protects him from any further clampdown.  We should all be so brave in the case that resistance is necessary even in presumed “free” nations.