Skoda is the son of a wealthy, overbearing banker and rather than put up with his father to keep a privileged lifestyle, he has chosen to ditch the relationship and drive a taxi for a living. The film follows Skoda on his nightly rides through the city, and though different characters come and go, Skoda meets a kindred spirit in the form of a teenage woman who finds her own home life equally difficult to shoulder. The two young people are gradually attracted to each other, and they end up one night in Skoda's room together. At that moment, the older woman that Skoda had been involved with opens the door and discovers his infidelity. Skoda is living in her house and driving the taxi she gave him -- her commitment was abundantly clear from the beginning. Pushed over the edge, the older woman commits suicide -- and Skoda is blamed for her death by her ex-husband. He swears to avenge her, and the hunt for Skoda begins.
Cinematography
Taxi as moving confessional—Berlin glows with lonely neon.
Acting
Rühaak's Skoda: all charm, zero accountability.
Direction
Glowna turns a cab into a purgatory of bad decisions.
Director
Vadim Glowna
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during the peak of New German Cinema's commercial struggles, Glowna's film bridges Fassbinder's theatrical cruelty and Wenders' road-movie melancholy.
Vera Tschechowa, who plays the ill-fated Hilke, was the granddaughter of legendary director F.W. Murnau—cinema's original phantom of doomed romance.
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