Nahid Taheri
Team Member

afar Panahi's Taxi has won the

significant Golden Bear at the 65th
Berlin International Film Festival. Reading
reviews made for both surprising and happy
moments for me, as an Iranian. Knowing
that during protests against the 2009 Iranian
presidential election results he was arrested
twice and then was sentenced to a 20-year
ban on directing any movie or even leaving
the country gives Iranians a feeling of pride

around the world when his movie, Taxi,
filmed entirely in a moving car fitted with
three webcams, has won the Golden Bear.

Panahi himself plays a driver, and all
passengers are played by nonprofessional
actors. Using a contrast of light and shade
- of the jovial and the grim - Panahi was
able to create what can easily be seen as a
plea for the vibrancy of his country. Here,
people are motivated by the issues that are
often debated in Western media, but also
pass through life with a warmth, normality,

ne

and inconsequence that many would deny.

Various characters playfully make reference
to the possibility of being actors working to
a script, while a film student expresses the
frustrations they suffer, given the state’s
restriction on what can and cannot be said

by filmmakers working within their borders.

Taxi is perhaps not new in Iranian cinema,
drawing direct comparison with Abbas
Kiarostami’s car-bound Ten, but Panahi’s
film doesn’t even hope for state approval -

re aay |
* Reviews Taxi

ulture

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Taxi (2015)y
Jafar Panahi Film Production

especially with a finale in which he stages
the theft of his video recorder’s memory
card by government goons. Even the
swiveling of his camera takes on a political
resonance as he fights against an invisible
combatant for control of the gaze.

With Panahi’s injection of humor
and his unique constellation of ideas,
Taxi is a refreshing return to form
and the busy streets of Tehran.