10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Taxi Tehran (Taxi) (2016 Feature Film)

Jafar Panahi | Iran | 2015 | 82 min | Persian | d.s.

This award-winning hybrid documentary enables Jafar Panahi to once again get around his ban on filming imposed by the Iranian courts. He ‘plays’ a taxi driver in Teheran while his inconspicuous dashcam records his talks with passengers. Open-hearted conversations and comical incidents paint a strong, honest image of contemporary Iran.

If you catch a cab in Tehran, the last thing you expect is the county’s most famous filmmaker Jafar Panahi behind the wheel. A dashcam records all the conversations he has with his passengers. This proves to be a smart ploy by Panahi to circumvent the third filming ban imposed on him by the Iranian courts and show the world the daily struggles of Iranians. His candid passengers conjure up a moving portrayal of a restrictive society full of exceptional people. The filmmaker has kept things light by adding slapstick-like scenes. After every bend, new things happen and we meet new people. As we would expect, most of the ‘actors’ more or less play themselves as does Panahi. Using this hybrid, documentary narrative allows the Iranian master to once again idiosyncratically tackle Iranian censorship.

Place: CINEMA 2

Date: 7 April 2016

Time: 22:15

Duration: 1:30

Place: CINEMA 2

Date: 9 April 2016

Time: 11:15

Duration: 1:30

Place: CINEMA 2

Date: 10 April 2016

Time: 19:00

Duration: 1:30

Year in
Festival

2016

Director

Jafar Panahi

Camera

Jafar Panahi

Cast

Jafar Panahi

Country

Iran

Editor

Jafar Panahi

Language

Persian

Length

82 min

Producer

Jafar Panahi

Production Company

Jafar Panahi Film Productions

Sales

Celluloid Dreams

Scenario

Jafar Panahi

Sound Design

Jafar Panahi

Year of Production

2015

After completing his film studies, Jafar PANAHI (1960, Iran) became assistant to Abbas Kiarostami, his mentor and source of inspiration. Panahi rarely uses professional actors and his style moves between documentary and neorealism. Typical of his work is a critical attitude towards class differences and the position of minorities and women in Iran. As a result, his films are rarely screened in Iran. He won the Caméra d’Or for best debut film with The White Balloon and won the Golden Lion in Venice with The Circle (2000). Offside was awarded the Silver Bear and The Jury Grand Prix at the Berlinale in 2006. In 2010, Jafar Panahi was handed a six-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any films, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media, or leaving the country. Panahi nevertheless managed to make a few films and to smuggle these out of the country. Taxi Tehran (2015) won the Golden Bear and the FIPRESCI award in Berlin.

 

Filmography

Yarali bashlar/Les têtes blessées (1988, short), Negah-e dovom/Deuxième regard (1989, short), Kish (1991, short), Akharin emtehan/Dernière épreuve (1992, short), Doust/The Friend (1995, short), Badkonak-e sefid/The White Balloon (1995), Ayneh/The Mirror (1997), Ardekoul (1997, short), Dayereh/The Circle (2000), Talaye sorgh/Crimson Gold (2003), Offside (2006), Untying the Knot (2007, short), The Accordion (2010, short), In film nist/This Is Not a Film (2011, doc), Pardé/Closed Curtain (2013), Taxi/Taxi Tehran (2015)