An extroardinary film by a courgeous film-maker: Jafar Panahi's Taxi

Jafar Panahi's Taxi (2015) is a fine, entertaining, extremely courageous movie - made in the face of and under the direct threat of state censorship or much worse, an unmasking of the repression of art and ideas in contemporary Iran, all done with great subtlety and wit. Panahi, playing himself (as he did in his previous film made while he was banned from the practice of moviemaking - This Is Not a Movie), drives a cab for a day on the streets of Tehran and has a series of odd encounters. The film toys with the idea that Panahi is filming a documentary, just seeing what he'll observe among the riders he transports, until one of the passengers "recognizes" Pahani - by that point we realize that it's all scripted - and very well scripted, for that matter. His passengers include a professional mugger who argues with a school teacher (like all the women, in the cab and on the streets, she wears the traditional head-covering) about whether the state should publicly execute a few criminals to put fear into the hearts of others; a guy who sells smuggled Western DVDS (without me, no more Woody Allen, he says), two women who need to get to a public part to release some goldfish into the spring or fountain; and most interestingly his young niece who's trying to make a film for a school project but has to comply with the code of film-making (show nothing discouraging, no poverty or crime, make everything uplifting, etc.). Despite the heaviness and importance of his theme, Panahi is spirited throughout and the film is thoroughly entertaining. Everything Panahi has done in this film is a stick in the eye to the Iranian rulers and mullahs - but his art, and his pursuit of the truth, is that important to him. Imagine Western film-makers being so courageous. Some of our greatest art arises from conditions or oppression (and censorship) - but what hell and torment for the artist.