His earliest passengers include a conservative-minded man who supports capital punishment and a woman supporting its abolition, a pirated video vendor named Omid who once lent foreign films not available in the country to Panahi, an injured man and his wife who insist on recording a last will due to their panic, and a pair of superstitious old women wanting to release their goldfishes to a holy spring.

Meanwhile, Hana films a case of siahnamayi herself when she spots a boy who picks up money that had been dropped on the road by a couple of newlyweds and initially refuses to return it.

Finally, Panahi and Hana meet with Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer about to see the imprisoned Ghoncheh Ghavami and possibly convince her to give up her hunger strike.

Sotoudeh decides to leave early so Panahi can deliver the purse, but not before giving him a rose as a goodwill for filmmakers.

Panahi and Hana proceed to the springs and are able to return the purse; at the same time as this happens, a pair of thieves (or government agents) ransack the taxi, before the film cuts off.

[10] According to Jean-Michel Frodon, the passengers include "Men and women, young and old, rich and poor, traditionalists and modernists, pirated video vendors, and advocates of human rights, [who sit] in the passenger seat of the inexperienced driver [who they refer to as] Harayé Panahi (Aghaye Panahi, آقای پناهی), 'Mr.

The website's critical consensus states: " Jafar Panahi's Taxi offers another round of trenchant societal commentary from a director whose entire filmography stands as a daring act of dissent".

[18] Because Panahi was legally unable to leave Iran to attend the festival, his niece Hana Saeidi (who appears in the film) was there to accept the award on his behalf.