Jafar Pahani: Taxi Teheran

The French poster for the film catches perfectly the sweet, light and unpretentious atmosphere of the latest work made by a director, who lives under a berufsverbot from the state he lives in: he is not allowed to make films, he is not allowed to leave the country. And it introduces the characters, or should I say: The teacher who argues with the man (third from the right), who has quite strong opinions on what should be done to criminals. The little man who sells films on dvd even those that are not finished yet (!), the two older ladies who enter with a bowl of goldfish, the niece who wants to make films as her uncle, the taxidriving director Pahani, but has been told by her school teacher, that certain rules have to be followed, the boy who is in her film, but can not be as he ”commits a crime” on camera, and finally the flower-carrying, smiling dissident-colleague to Pahani.

The film starts, Pahani is behind the wheel, he takes the driver’s seat with a camera that can be positioned so it catches what happens outside and inside with the characters entering, those on the poster. It is joyful to watch with small situations that reflect a debate on human rights in Iran, that susperstition lives well among the older generation, that you can get whatever film you want in piracy copies (I experienced that myself back in 2000 when I visited Teheran), that there are rules for what you can film and what not.

Pahani himself, the taxi driving film director, comes out as a mild and generous character – one of the kind of taxi drivers you seldom meet – he listens to the stories that he has created for the film – and makes his job as a film director, who loves his citizens and who lives as they do, coping with the many restrictions.

Iran, 2015, 82 mins.

You can only love that film, that opens theatrically in Copenhagen, Grand Teatret October 1st.