Quba Tuakli's video for Brixton-based Turkish artist Emir Taha takes us on a surreal trip in the back of a South London minicab.

In the video for Katakulli - the lead track on his latest EP Hoppa Pt 2 - Taha encounters a larger-than-life cab driver from his homeland when he enters a taxi heavily flavoured with Turkish culture.

Warding off any bad vibes with his ancient Nazar beads, Taha heads off on this journey into the unknown, a likeably dazed figure at the centre of Tuakli's wacky visual comedy. He calmly takes the changing surroundings, and the stern lecture he's getting his opinionated elder driving the cab - even when he finds his cab has detoured from South London and finds itself in outer space.

These things happen when you take the wrong exit on the South Circular...

QUBA AMIR:

The video is a descent into frantic delirium ignited by a longing for one’s native culture.

“Emir wanted something dark and trippy, having written the song while disillusioned with his environment and desiring to return home (Turkey). It fit with the track and was a great starting point for me - I’m drawn to irreverent narratives about identity and belonging. And when we decided that the video should have an aspect of travel to it, the ideas just kept forming in my head.

"The resulting video is a descent into frantic delirium ignited by a longing for one’s native culture. Said delirium starts off
confrontational until the experience becomes something warm and familiar.

"It’s a pleasure working with an artist like Emir - respectful of a director’s craft and creativity, with the ability to provide insightful feedback when the time is right. During the pitching/pre-production phase, we not only built an idea we both invested in but also a mutual trust - two things that are essential to a good video and a happy working environment.

"We shot the whole video thirty seconds from my house in South London. Now half my neighbours think I’m Michael Bay, the other half think I’m a wild-eyed, low loader-riding, roundabout-circling, silver-haired cross-dressing cab driver toating public menace. Big
Win.

"I was talking to Daniella my EP in the run-up, about how unsettled I was that a Covid-era promo could go so smoothly. Guess what happened next? We lost our AD at 6:30 am, thirty minutes before call time. Our producer Joseph woke up half the professional shouty men in London to find a replacement, while simultaneously pulling off his best “everything’s in hand” impression. Maybe it wasn’t an impression - by 9am we had an AD and by wrap, we had almost made up all that lost time.”