Petit Taxi

Charismatic taxi driver Oussama crisscrosses Casablanca day and night, picking up passengers and taking them to their destinations. Along the way, the driver and his customers invariably end up in lively conversations about major and minor topics, ranging from day-to-day worries to serious issues and big dreams. Oussama is candid about his own life and at the same time listens with interest to men and women from all walks of life. Playfully and intuitively, this produces a cinematic potpourri of the inhabitants of the Moroccan city. These slices of life are faintly reminiscent of Jafar Panahi’s Taxi Tehran, even though in this case the filmmaker is not the driver himself. From the passenger’s seat, director Samy Sidali films both Oussama and his customers. Their smoothly edited conversations are as diverse as the destinations and points of view of the passengers. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)