Mon Taxi and love transcending space and time
By: Javier Ferrer R-Rey
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 07/30/2026
After its premiere in Tribeca, Mon Taxi will screen at HollyShorts on August 16th at 5pm at the TCL Chinese theatre. A film about love and how it transcends space and time.
The film, written and directed by architect turned filmmaker Meriem Sakrouhi, taps deep into the souls of those who are outside of their country and miss their home and their family.
The film follows Meriem’s day-to-day commute through the bustling New York streets while hearing the recordings of voice notes she makes to his father during the commute. A unique and beautiful way to keep in touch with someone who is in a better place.
Long Synopsis:
When the person you call every day disappears, where does your voice go?
For years, calling her father was the daily ritual for Moroccan filmmaker Meriem Sakrouhi. He was the invisible driver on her routine commutes, the sounding board for her wildest dreams, and the patient recipient of her silly complaints. When he passed, she didn’t just lose his voice, she lost the destination for her own. Her urge to stay connected remained. One day, she decides to call him.
Visualizing eleven of those calls while moving through grief, family, and humor, this personal film is a cinematic love letter to conversations that extend beyond space and time.
Everything in the film works phenomenally, the narration, the music, the raw and unfiltered cinematography which captures New York’s essence perfectly. And especially the message which lands very strong once the last recorded voice message cuts.
After watching Mon Taxi, I had the pleasure of interviewing Meriem and asked her about not only her film career but about certain elements of the film that make it so much more impactful and sentimental.
Here are a couple of questions I asked her:
THT: There’s a lot of emphasis on fig trees in the film and in the press kit, what is the significance of it and how does it resonate with you?
Meriem Sakrouhi: Thank you for asking me. I’m glad you noticed. Fig trees are very important in the history of my family. My grandfather had a fig tree in his house. My dad has a fig tree. My sister now has a fig tree, which appears in the film. I will eventually get a fig tree. My apartment in New York is way too small for that. But it comes from the fact that my dad is from the Rif which is an indigenous area in North Africa. And one of the trees that are famous from that region are the figs and the fig trees. And they’re honestly the best figs I’ve had. Whenever I would go while I was living away; I left Morocco when I was 17, but I would visit very often. Whenever I visited, my dad would wake up very early, go to the market, get very fresh figs, and handpick them. It was kind of a love language for him to feed us figs. So it was really important for me to include that. Also, the fig tree is one of the ways that made the idea of making a short film with my voice notes click. It started with me wanting to talk to my dad and recording all these voice notes. And six months later I had started this ritual, where I was traveling somewhere and I saw a fig tree that looked very different from the ones that I’m used to seeing. And I took a photo or a video and I had the same impulse of wanting to share that with Dad because I wanted to show him how it looked. And that made it click and be like, “oh, I want to share videos, I want to share these calls, maybe I should connect them and make a short film.” So it was also the element that connected it.
THT: I love the title of the film Mon Taxi . Tell me more about it and how you landed on it.
Meriem Sakrouhi: Mon Taxi actually came eventually to me because I remember that’s how my dad nicknamed himself “my taxi”. My working title for my film was just Salut Papa, which is one of the greetings I do whenever I call my dad. I mix languages a lot since in Morocco we mix languages, and one of the ways I called him was Salut Papa, but it felt like it was missing something because it only captures one language and it only captures one way of calling him. And I wasn’t convinced. So I was thinking about options. And then, I just remembered my dad would always joke and say at the end of my calls with him that he’s kind of like my free taxi because whenever I called him, it was when I would leave my home and go walk; since New York is so walkable I would leave my home and start walking to meet a friend for a coffee or to go to my day job. And the moment I arrived, I would be like, “okay, Dad, I’m here, I’m going to go now.” And he would laugh and say “oh my God, you’re welcome for the free ride, I’m your free taxi.” So it just stuck. He would tell all his friends that he’s my taxi. And it made sense. He is my taxi. And hence the title Mon Taxi. And it all went full circle with this film, it’s opening the biggest doors into the film industry for me, because in a way that means he’s still taking me places. So in a way, that taxi metaphor still works beyond what I thought or expected it to work.
Enjoy our interview:
Mon Taxi will screen at Hollyshorts in the TCL Chinese theatre August 16th at 5pm. Make sure you don’t miss this gem of a short film.
Filmmaker Meriem Sakrouhi is a Moroccan architect turned filmmaker based in New York, but will be traveling/onsite for her premieres. Her directorial debut, Inner Selves, won several awards. She is currently developing a feature-length documentary and training for her second half marathon. Visualizing eleven of those calls while moving through grief, family, and humor, this personal film is a cinematic love letter to conversations that extend beyond space and time. Grief and loss are Directed, edited, produced with some cinematography by Meriem Sakrouhi, this incredible 8 ½ minute documentary story of crushing loss and the need for connection in a digitally isolating world is a impactful conversation starter.
Directors Statement:
We often speak of grief as the silence left behind. But when my dad died, what overwhelmed me most was the urge to speak.
After I moved to the US, calling my dad became a daily ritual. The moment I stepped outside, I called him. For years, he was the invisible driver on my routine commutes, the sounding board for my wildest dreams, and the patient recipient of my silly complaints.
When he passed, I didn’t just lose his voice, I lost the destination for my own. I still had the crazy ideas and the urge to pick up the phone, but there was no one there to answer. One day, the need to share a thought was so visceral that I instinctively reached for my phone. Unable to call, I hit record instead. In that moment, I understood that life could end, but a relationship could continue. By recording voice notes, I found a way to continue ours.
Told through eleven voice notes recorded over eighteen months, Mon Taxi began with that realization. It moves through grief not as a fixed state, but as a living rhythm shaped by repetition, memory, tenderness, and unexpected humor.
At its heart, Mon Taxi is a film about the rituals that remain, the bond that survives loss, and the human need to keep speaking across impossible distance. Because sometimes grief isn’t silence at all, but love refusing to let the conversation end.
Film & Social Pages:
Film Website: montaxifilm.com
Film Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
Director Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/
