Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £4.99 a month
Taxi Tehran
Following a personally difficult but artistically rewarding spell making films under house arrest, Jafar Panahi is back on the streets of Tehran.
Documentary 2015 81 mins
Director: Jafar Panahi
Overview
But inspired by the limitations of his incarceration, he continues the use of confined settings by locating his film entirely inside a taxi-cab, in a formal structure that references 10, another classic of Iranian cinema from Panahi’s old associate Abbas Kiarostami.
After giving rides around Tehran to a motley array of passengers – from a rabid reactionary and a liberal teacher to a man selling pirate DVDs and women heading to a shrine – he finally collects his niece, a sassy youngster making a little movie herself for school. Cue a discussion of how film should represent reality (or not!): a subject clearly close to Panahi’s heart, given his standing with the Iranian authorities. Despite its concern with ethics, aesthetics and politics, the film oozes disarming charm and mischievous wit, slyly reminding us that cinema, for better or worse, always trades in illusion.
moderate bloody injuryRelated
Documentary
David Bowie Is Dead David Bowie Is Dead
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2018 17 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
Mark Jenkin (Bait) undertakes a stream-of-consciousness road trip through London in the turblent wake of David Bowie's death.
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 5 Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 5
Documentary 2019 122 mins Director: Mark Cousins
The journey ends with the biggest themes of love, death and the meaning of life.
Mifune : The Last Samurai Mifune : The Last Samurai
Documentary 2016 80 mins Director: Steven Okazaki
The on and off-screen character of Toshiro Mifune, Japan’s first international movie star, is explored in this illuminating documentary exploring the life and legacy of this mercurial icon.
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 4 Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 4
Documentary 2019 178 mins Director: Mark Cousins
Melodrama, memory, classic genres and tense emotions come under the spotlight in the fourth part of Mark Cousins' sprawling opus.
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 3 Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 3
Documentary 2019 178 mins Director: Mark Cousins
Sex, religion and politics are among the themes in the third part of Mark Cousins' monumental documentary on women's cinema.
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 2 Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 2
Documentary 2019 179 mins Director: Mark Cousins
Mark Cousins' epic journey continues with focuses on movement, simplicity of style, the story of films about children, dreams, the power of the close-up.
Award Winning
Winter Sleep Winter Sleep
Drama 2014 197 mins Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Modern master filmmaker Nuri Bilge Celyan’s Palme d’Or winner: an extraordinary, epic drama.
Stranger by the Lake Stranger by the Lake
Drama 2013 100 mins Director: Alain Guiraudie
A young man witnesses a violent crime at a gay cruising ground and becomes obsessed with the killer in Alain Guiraudie’s acclaimed mystery-thriller.
Bicycle Thieves Bicycle Thieves
Drama 1948 89 mins Director: Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica’s story of a father and son searching for a stolen bicycle on the streets of Rome is a classic of post-war Italian cinema.
L'avventura L'avventura
Drama 1960 137 mins Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Antonioni’s masterpiece of modern alienation, with Monica Vitti as the young woman searching for her friend who's inexplicably disappeared.
Festen Festen
Drama 1998 101 mins Director: Thomas Vinterberg
A family reunion turns both incredibly dark and unexpectedly hilarious, in the infamous first film of the Dogme 95 movement initiated by director Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier.
Picnic at Hanging Rock Picnic at Hanging Rock
Period drama 1975 107 mins Director: Peter Weir
The film that established Peter Weir as a major filmmaker remains one of the most chillingly atmospheric and beautifully enigmatic films ever made.
New
The Whalebone Box The Whalebone Box
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2019 83 mins Director: Andrew Kötting
On their latest jaunt, Iain Sinclair and Andrew Kötting set out to return a whalebone box to its place of origin in the Outer Hebrides.
Hard, Cracked the Wind Hard, Cracked the Wind
Horror 2019 17 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
A haunting with words is the lure between life and death for a young Cornish poet.
Bronco's House Bronco's House
Drama 2015 44 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
A young man strives to provide a home for his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child, in Mark Jenkin's mid-length precursor to Bait.
Enough to Fill Up an Eggcup Enough to Fill Up an Eggcup
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2016 36 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
Transcending a portrait of place, the quiet, eternal rhythms of the small fishing cove Penberth are caught, landed and served up in this stark and gentle handcrafted celluloid poem from Mark Jenkin (Bait).
Don't Look Down Don't Look Down
Drama 2019 89 mins Director: Olivier Ducastel
Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau (directors of Théo and Hugo), serve up a deliciously enigmatic chamber piece.
David Bowie Is Dead David Bowie Is Dead
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2018 17 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
Mark Jenkin (Bait) undertakes a stream-of-consciousness road trip through London in the turblent wake of David Bowie's death.