Mon Taxi

A tapestry of father-daughter love is shown in this short documentary from Moroccan filmmaker Meriem Sakrouhi, whose daily routine of calling her father to let him know what’s going on in her life ends when he passes away. She decides to call him posthumously, creating a beautifully cinematic journey. 

Eschewing talking heads for an abundance of postcard-like snapshots of all the places Meriem goes to and the experiences she has (such as asian cuisine and protests), Mon Taxi spectacularly captures a very common relationship offspring have with their parents. Once kids have flown the coop, one of the only ways to keep abreast of their goings-on is the classic weekly Sunday phone call. For Meriem Sakrouhi, it was a daily routine that got tragically cut short by the passing of her dad. 

Whilst the audience becomes engrossed in the vocal storytelling by the filmmaker, they are treated to a wide variety of impressive, often urban lifestyle shots; the type of things we all see every day without always noticing the serene beauty in them. Her sharing of these moments with her dad, along with the innocuous trivialities of family life (his fig tree is pretty impressive, to be fair), makes them glow with a divinity that can only come from a family bond, transcending space and time (as the film states) into the metaphysical. 

The editing is zesty, sometimes using slow motion to display the impressive beauty of a moment, or choppy cutting to reflect the cacophony of big city living. The sound design does something similar, sometimes blasting us with noise to rile the viewer up, or letting a moment breathe with just the noise of waves. The non-diegetic sound enhances the atmosphere of the piece, tying it together and avoiding the documentary falling into “home movie” territory. 

Life-affirming and oddly powerful, Mon Taxi is a testament to the parental bonds that can survive anything.