Tag Archives: The Mirror

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015)

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi review.

written by Souranath Banerjee

‘Nothing can prevent me from making films since when being pushed to the ultimate corners I connect with my inner-self and, in such private spaces, despite all limitations, the necessity to create becomes even more of an urge.’ – Jafar Panahi.

My Ratings: 4.3/5.

Jafar Panahi is an Iranian filmmaker of great calibre, one of the pioneers of the Iranian New Wave, who made acclaimed films like The White Balloon (1995), The Mirror (1997), The Circle (2000) and Offside (2006).

But in his own country, his films were seen as propaganda against the Iranian government and on March 2010, Jafar Panahi along with his wife, daughter, and 15 friends were arrested!

Jafar-Panahi's-Taxi-poster420-year ban was put on him preventing him from directing any movies, writing screenplays or even giving interviews with Iranian or foreign media. He is not even allowed to leave the country except for medical treatment or making the Hajj pilgrimage.

But the voice of a true film maker can never be silenced and thus Jafar Panahi can never be stopped from making his films.

Since his ban in 2010, Jafar Panahi has already made three brilliant films This Is Not a Film (2011), Closed Curtain (2013) and his latest Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015). All these films were eventually smuggled out of Iran (one of them was smuggled on a flash drive put inside a baked cake) and screened in numerous prestigious film festivals. 

Jafar-Panahi's-Taxi-posterTaxi Tehran aka Jafar Panahi’s Taxi was recently a part of the JIO MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival, and was very well received – it even won the Audience Choice award.

The whole film was made from inside a car, yes, the camera never goes out of the Taxi!

The concept is simple enough, director Jafar Panahi himself posing as a taxi driver goes around the streets of Iran and record his interactions with other people who hires/rides his taxi. The style is that of a documentary and these funny yet crucial conversations make the content of the film.

A well rehearsed and cleverly scripted film, brilliantly acted by everyone including the director – incredibly natural performances!

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi is very entertaining film but that’s not where it stops.

Jafar-Panahi's-Taxi-poster1The film is also a socio-political statement on the modern day Iran, a country that is still clouded with superstition and poverty, where capital punishment still exists for crimes like petty theft and women are jailed for trying to attend men’s volleyball match!

The film is a silent scream against Iran’s harsh, non-democratic government policies; for example: in the entertainment sector who or what exactly defines publishable or screenable cinema?

Through the often hilarious and seemingly lighthearted film, Jafar Panahi asks many such invaluable questions to the world knowing very well that the answers are buried deep in his own country.

He smiles, sympathies, often shows discomfort and in his own leisurely way, he guides us through a few hours of a very cleverly mapped taxi route.

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi is also the director’s personal protest, a loud yet peaceful way of defying injustice, of breaking away the shackles; it’s a celebration of freedom through cinema.

Jafar Panahi may not be the best cabbie but this is one taxi ride that is highly recommended for all film lovers.

Poster courtesy: filmmakermagazine.comhttp://www.cinenews.be

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Andrei Tarkovsky – the sculptor of time

Andrei Tarkovsky – the sculptor of time. 

written by Souranath Banerjee

‘My discovery of Tarkovsky’s first film was like a miracle. Suddenly, I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then, never been given to me. It was a room I had always wanted to enter and where he was moving freely and fully at ease. 

I felt encouraged and stimulated: someone was expressing what I had always wanted to say without knowing how. Tarkovsky is for me the greatest, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.’ 

– Ingmar Bergman on Tarkovsky.

The famous Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky himself believed that ‘Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art.’

A sequence from his epic film Ivan’s Childhood (1962), where Tarkovsky made sure he created cinema that is both ‘spiritual’ and ‘timeless‘. 

Steven Soderbergh, who remade Solaris (2002) with George Clooney in the lead confessed ‘I’m a big fan of Tarkovsky. I think he’s an actual poet, which is very rare in the cinema, and the fact that he had such an impact with only seven features I think is a testament to his genius.’

Son of the famous Russian poet Arseny Alexandrovich Tarkovsky, the films Tarkovsky made were essentially poetic and mystic in nature. They are distinguished by metaphysical themes, extensive use of long takes and very few cuts, and they also (most often) deviates from all the general film-narrative structures. 

The famous levitation scene from Solaris (1972), Tarkovsky’s experiment with the Sci Fi genre.

Lars von Trier while explaining why he dedicated his film Antichrist (2009) to Tarkovsky mentioned ‘Have you ever seen a film called Mirror? I was hypnotised! I’ve seen it 20 times. It’s the closest I’ve got to a religion – to me he is God.’

Tarkovsky1But then again, majority of the audience and many critics across the world find his style of cinema too intricate and often impenetrable; they find his expansive long takes too languid and even boring. His cinema demands a little bit of patience.

Tarkovsky, who never believed in commercialization of cinema claimed that ‘If the regular length of a shot is increased, one becomes bored, but if you keep on making it longer, it piques your interest, and if you make it even longer a new quality emerges, a special intensity of attention.’

A sequence from The Mirror (1975), the shamanistic visuals that blur the lines of dreams and reality. 

After Tarkovsky’s death on 29 December 1986 Akira Kurosawa spoke of his ‘unusual sensitivity [as] both overwhelming and astounding. It almost reaches a pathological intensity. Probably there is no equal among film directors alive now.’

Tarkovsky wrote the famous book on film theory known as Sculpting in Time, where he spoke about his inspirations and also the power of cinema as a medium that can alter our experience of time.

His unique cinematography and remarkable ability to freeze time still exhilarate and inspire filmmakers and will continue to do so forever.

My favorite scene from Stalker (1979), visuals so magical and enigmatic that it gives almost a supernatural feeling.

Photo Courtesy: http://andrei-tarkovsky.com

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