Every new movie by Jafar Panahi is a miniature coup, an act of fearless political defiance.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl
There's something wonderful in how these scenes, so breezy and funny, reveal so much.
Screen International by Dan Fainaru
This is a delightful surprise, and though it is even more minimalistic than his last two illegal exports, This Is Not A film and Closed Curtains, it is also more mature, and better calibrated and - at the risk of annoying art house patrons who often hate this term - more entertaining than the other two.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
Amazingly, Panahi turns the utterly simple, economical format of a camera inside a car into something relevant to his own artistic state and full of eye-opening insights into Iranian society.
At 82 minutes, this is a brisk but hugely powerful work that is cinema of the oppressed par excellence.
New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme
Often extremely funny, always thoughtful, the movie transcends its static nature to become a deeper picture of modern Iran than any news story could offer.
Jafar Panahi spotlights the act of filmmaking as an act of resistance as well as a possible source of propaganda and manipulation.
An insightful, enjoyable, absorbing ride that stands as a testament to its director's lively, ungovernable storytelling imagination.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Taxi grew on me. It is not as angry and painful as his previous work, the samizdat This Is Not a Film, but it is subtle, humorous and humane. It tells you more about modern Iran, I think, than you’ll discover on the news.
A film of quiet but profound outrage, laughing on the surface, but howling in anger just beneath.