Jafar Panahi: Cars, Rooms & Moral Pressure

In Taxi Tehran, Jafar Panahi drives through the city as passengers enter, leave and argue within the same dashboard frame. The car becomes a small public room. Nobody can step away from the conversation, while the streets beyond the windows keep the wider city present.

For the second session of our Jafar Panahi month, Sammy Holden will use the film’s opening passenger debate to examine how framing and seating become part of the conflict. We will follow the shifting balance between the characters and consider how an ordinary exchange can carry questions that reach far beyond the car.

We will not try to sort the people on screen into categories of “real” or “performed”. Instead, we will look at how framing, editing and performance shape what the viewer is asked to believe.

Working in small groups, we will set an eight-line exchange inside a car, kitchen, hallway or waiting room.…