TAXIFILMFEST

Lonely City

Admin — 2025-03-16T20:34:26Z

SHORT:
Taxi driver Zhang Zhiyong drives around the city, picking up a variety of passengers. Among them are a woman who comes from outside the city and is looking for her husband, a young internet celebrity who is searching for her father, and a security guard who is scattering his father's ashes in the river. Each passenger carries their own unspoken loneliness, and Zhang Zhiyong also has his own story. His taxi is a journey through life itself.

LANG:
Cab driver Zhang Zhiyong lives alone in Chongqing and has made his car his home. He takes a variety of passengers, each with their own story.

Chapter 1: Strangers whose paths cross

He Xi, a woman from Inner Mongolia, takes Zhang's car while searching for her husband Jiang Wei, who left home years ago. When she finally finds him, she discovers that he has been transformed by an MCN agency into a popular livestreamer known as ‘Wandering Master', who attracts millions of followers. Surrounded by a crowd on the riverbank, he seems like a character in an absurd theatre play. He Xi and Jiang Wei face each other in silence, and then she leaves, heartbroken.

Chapter 2: The House Underwater

Security guard Lao Liu's hometown in Fengjie was flooded during the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. After the death of his father, Zhang and Lao Liu travel together to return his father's ashes. Since his hometown is now underwater, Lao Liu has to board a boat from the resettlement site to the waterline. Using modern measuring equipment, he locates the position of his former home, scatters his father's ashes in the river, pays his respects on the shore, and hopes that his father can return home.

Chapter 3: The Rising River, from the afternoon

Zhang wanders the streets and meets his nephew Xiao Wu, who has run away from school. Xiao Wu asks Zhang to help him find his father, whom he has never met. Years ago, Xiao Wu's father worked on river boats and eventually divorced his mother. Together, Zhang and Xiao Wu search along the river and eventually find Xiao Wu's father's new wife and child on an extravagant ship called the Mount Fuji. The stepmother tells Xiao Wu that his father has gone to sea, which makes Xiao Wu sad.
Through their conversations, we learn that Zhang left his hometown after losing his own child in a fire caused by an evil nanny. Xiao Wu reveals that Zhang's ex-wife has since remarried and is expecting another child, encouraging Zhang to move past his grief. Zhang drives off as the streetlights come on, casting a warm glow on the interior of his car.

Director's Biography – Zhidan G奥

Director Gao Zhidan has a master's degree in directing from the School of Theatre, Film and Television at the Communication University of China and also studied at the Department of Literature at the Beijing Film Academy. Gao is a member of the Theoretical Criticism Committee of the China Film Association, a member of the Fujian Film Script Creation Research Center and a lecturer in the Department of Film and Television Arts at the School of Communication at Fujian Normal University.

Director's comment

This is a story about searching: a wife searches for her husband, a security guard searches for his lost hometown, a son searches for his father. In this strange and complex time, we may not be searching for a specific person, but for a clearer understanding of ourselves – who we are, where we come from and where we are going. Through these stories, we seek to reflect on the transformative events of the last few decades in Chinese history, while also presenting the survival experiences of people in our digital age.
The three groups of passengers embody three generations – people born in the 1970s, 1980s and 2000s – ordinary people who reflect the larger temporal backdrop. Each of them carries traces of the era's memory: the layoffs, the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the one-child policy – all of which resonate subtly in the background of the story. Together, they embark on a journey along the river, uncovering themes of life and identity.

Zhidan G奥: director, screenwriter
Jing Shen: producer
Cast
Pengfei Yu: ‘Zhang Zhiyong'
Yun Gao: ‘He Xi'
Yihong Ou: ‘Xiaowu'

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Completion date: 8 October 2024
Country of origin: China
Language: Chinese
Format: digital
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Film colour: colour

View online : https://filmfreeway.com/submissions...

Wat Neuet im Westen / Ruins

Admin — 2025-03-16T20:29:03Z

Wat Neuet im Westen (engl. ‘Ruins') is a vivid documentary film about four artists and their memories of West Berlin's idiosyncratic bar scene in the 1970s and 80s. While bartender and painter Jo Schmejkal delves into the depths of the underground, author Willi Gettél and painter Horst-Dieter Keitel provoke a press scandal, and video artist Knut Hoffmeister captures the scene with his Super 8 camera.

Director's Biography – Daya Lavine Sieber, Anna Herrmann

Daya Lavine Sieber, born 1994 in Munich, studied art history, philosophy and media studies. During and after her master's degree, she worked as a research assistant, freelance journalist, editor and in various cultural fields. Since 2021, she has been studying documentary film and television journalism at the University of Television and Film Munich and working for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In her work as a filmmaker, she likes to focus on people with unusual life choices and how they engage with sub- and pop-cultural phenomena.

Anna Herrmann is an actress and artist from Berlin. Since the age of eleven, she has appeared in numerous films and television series. In 2014, she graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts with a degree in fine arts and later completed an acting training at the University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig. In her artistic work, she likes to combine different art forms in innovative ways.

The directors on their film

When we first heard Jo Schmejkal's stories about the legendary bar ‘Ruine' in West Berlin in the 70s and 80s, we were fascinated. These tales, full of wild energy and eccentric characters, opened a window into a time and place often overlooked in mainstream narratives. Our colleague Laurine Irmer introduced us to Jo Schmejkal, one of our protagonists, and accompanied us throughout our long research process, making a significant contribution to the script. What began as a fascination with one man's memories soon developed into a vibrant mosaic of voices, memories and archive fragments from a vibrant but complex bar scene.

Daya Lavine has always been interested in uncovering hidden histories. In her previous film, ‘Sugar Tracks', she explored Munich's nightlife during the same period and was further fascinated by the untold stories of subcultural movements in German cities. For Anna, who grew up in Berlin, the city's complex past and its colourful personalities have always been a source of inspiration.

Together, we wanted to piece together this puzzle – not only as a historical artefact, but as a reflection of the creativity and struggles of a generation shaped by the shadows of post-war Germany.

Daya Lavine Sieber: director, writer, producer
Anna Herrmann: director, writer
Laurine Irmer: writer
Liam Wölfer: producer
Luca Riedel: Producer
Hana Reintges: Cinematographer
Marian Marx: Editor

Project title (original language): Wat Neuet im Westen
Project type: Documentary, experimental, short, student project
Runtime: 30 minutes 43 seconds
Completion date: 31 October 2024
Country of origin: Germany
Country of shooting: Germany
Language: German
Shooting format: Digital
Aspect ratio: 1:1.66
Film colour: Colour
First-time filmmaker: No
Student project: Yes – University of Television and Film Munich

View online : https://filmfreeway.com/submissions...

Es geht um Luis / It's about Luis

Admin — 2025-03-16T20:23:36Z

This powerful family drama, based on the play ‘El pequeño poni' by Paco Bezerra, tells the story of a couple struggling with the challenges of modern family life. Max Riemelt and Natalia Rudziewicz shine in the leading roles as a permanently stressed married couple juggling between career and family life.

When their ten-year-old son Luis is bullied at school because of his purple unicorn backpack, the parents find themselves in a conflict over social norms and the protection of their child.
Chiarla stages most of the action in the confined space of a taxi, which becomes a conflict zone for the parents, with urgency and subtle humour.

This innovative approach creates an intense atmosphere that draws viewers into the family's emotional turmoil. ES GEHT UM LUIS is a moving exploration of topics such as identity, bullying and parental responsibility.

Director: Lucia Chiarla
Cast: Max Riemelt, Natalia Rudziewicz, Franziska Troegner, Ruben Dietze, Aziz Capkurt, Yun Huang

Contact/Distribution: https://across-nations.de/projekte/es-geht-um-luis/

Premiere 2024

View online : https://across-nations.de/projekte/...

Taximan

Admin — 2025-03-16T19:59:51Z

Honourable Mention

Taximan is one of six films that we consider particularly successful and significant alongside the winners of the 2nd Taxifilmfest 2025.

Taximan is a masterly example of the art of omission. We experience an encounter reduced to the essentials, as it could take place in principle between passenger and driver in any taxi. The fact that the world's theatre is playing in the back seat of the taxi is so touchingly presented by Taximan that the film became the darling of the taxi film festival team at first glance. An intimate play with great lighting and a cautiously optimistic outcome.

Plot

A stranded alcoholic and a mysterious taxi driver go on a slightly different kind of road trip.

Team

Leander Behal: director, writer, producer
Nicola Herrmann: producer
Lucas Heinze: cinematographer
Eric Baudler: editor
Mia Prahl: costume designer
Sebastian Schulz: sound
Hana Reintges: assistant cameraperson
Linus Berberich: gaffer

Cast

Michaela Behal: ‘Doris'
Lee Reimers: 'Taximan'

Leander Behal (born in 1998 in Berlin, Germany) is a director with a penchant for surrealism, magical realism and black humour. He is currently studying feature film directing under Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann) at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

Director's statement
Doris and the taxi driver are sensitive and conflicted individuals with a tortured past. They are outsiders who want to escape the reality that has almost broken them. It seems as though they have completely lost contact with society. And in turn, society has shunned them. The question is whether they can save each other. If not, no one will.

‘Taximan' has a hopeful message. Even in the darkest days, the power of friendship can lead us to a better future.

Project type: short film, student project
Genres: road movie, dramatic comedy
Runtime: 9 minutes 19 seconds
Completion date: 23 March 2022
Production budget: €600
Country of Origin: Germany
Country of Shooting: Germany
Language: German
Shooting Format: DCI 4K
Aspect Ratio: 1.9:1
Film Colour: Colour
First-time Filmmaker: No
Student Project: Yes – Freie Universität Berlin

View online : https://filmfreeway.com/submissions...

Taxi In Time

Admin — 2025-03-16T19:59:25Z

Honourable Mention

Taxi In Time is one of six films that we consider particularly successful and significant alongside the winners of the 2nd Taxi Film Festival 2025.

Taxi In Time made us laugh like almost no other film at the 2nd Taxifilmfest 2025. Like a rollercoaster, the film races with its viewers through ever wilder iterations of a crazy porc cycle of business models and technological revolutions. It's obvious from the very first seconds that it can't end well, and it comes to a conclusion that is as plausible as it is impossible. Hilarious.

content

‘Taxi in Time' is a short film parodying Uber's battle against taxis, using an app called “Taxi in Time” that allows you to summon a DeLorean taxi in real time and travel anywhere, anytime... but be careful, it can have unexpected consequences!

Team

Gianluca Fratellini: director, screenwriter, producer
Mario Leone: Screenwriter
Christopher Lloyd: ‘Doc
Dario Penne: “Doc's Italian Voice”
Gianluca Fratellini: “Journalist”

Type: Animation, Experimental, Short, Web/New Media, Other
Genres: Parody, Animation, Short, Science Fiction, Comedy
Runtime: 3 minutes 49 seconds
Completed: 22 June 2018
Production budget: €10,000
Country of Origin: Italy
Country of Shooting: Italy
Language: English, Italian
Shooting Format: Digital
Aspect Ratio: 16:9

Director's Biography – Gianluca Fratellini

Gianluca Fratellini was born in Modugno, Puglia, in 1980 and grew up in Palo del Colle, a small village near Bari. He became interested in 3D at the age of 14 and spent his school days studying the first books on 3D Studio and Autocad. He often visited the office where his father worked and they used Autocad. During the breaks, he used the computers there. After graduating, he went to the University of Informatics, hoping to meet people who shared the same passion and with whom he could exchange information – in vain.

In a few months, he created the short film A Bug's Story (5 minutes) on a very slow computer, with a character similar to A Bug's Life by Pixar. While preparing for his first analysis exam, Oniria Pictures, a company in Luxembourg, sent him an email asking for a demo tape and asking if he would be interested in working on the 3D animated film ‘Tristan & Isolde'. At first, he was shocked by the news and thought it was a bad joke played on him by his friends. He dropped out of university and soon after moved to Luxembourg, where he worked for three years, first as a junior 3D animator on the American TV series ‘Bob's Beach' – 52 episodes of 11 minutes each – and then as a senior 3D animator for the first film, ‘Tristan & Isolde', and then for the second feature film, ‘Renart the Fox', which was realised in 3D with 2D rendering and backgrounds. During those three years, he also made his short film ‘Life in Smoke - Una Vita in Fumo' (8 minutes), working almost every night after work, including Saturdays and Sundays.

Thanks to the constant commitment and emotional support of the people close to him, he was able to successfully complete his short film, which still gives him satisfaction and has won numerous important awards at Italian and European festivals. He worked at Ubisoft Montreal in Montreal, Canada, as a 3D Senior Animator and Layout Supervisor in the Cinematic department for games such as Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Rainbow Six, Far Cry, AND 1 Streetball, Surf's Up, etc. He was also a 3D Animation Teacher of level II at Ubisoft's campus organised by Cegep of Matane in Quebec.

He worked at Animal Logic in Sydney, Australia as a 3D character animator on Mumble for the Warner Bros animated feature film ‘Happy Feet'. In England, he worked as a 3D senior animator at Climax. He worked at Ilion Animation Studios in Madrid, Spain, as a 3D character animator on the 3D animated film ‘Planet 51', distributed by New Line Cinema & TriStar Pictures, after working on the commercial for Danone and also as a 3D lead animator on the TV series ‘Glumpers'. He also worked with Double Negative in London as a 3D character animator on the film ‘Paul' starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for Universal Pictures and on the Disney/Pixar film ‘John Carter' starring Pixar director Andrew Stanton (of Wall-e and A Bug's Life).

He worked at Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver, Canada, as a lead 3D animator on the animated film Hotel Transylvania, directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Sony Pictures Animation for Columbia Pictures. He is currently working at Blue Sky Studios in New York as a 3D character animator on ‘Epic', ‘Rio 2', ‘Peanuts' and ‘Ice Age 5: Collision Course'.

He worked in London at Framestore on the Walt Disney film Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon, and the Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, directed by James Gunn.
He then worked as a lead animator at Mikros Animation Studio on the animated film Sherlock Gnomes, directed by John Stevenson. He worked as a lead animator at MPC on the new Disney film Dumbo, directed by Tim Burton, Maleficent 2 and The Lion King, directed by John Favreau.

In the meantime, he worked as a 3D lead animator and supervisor for a spot for La Biennale, the ‘76th Venice International Film Festival 2019', for the entire animation of the 3D lion, several commercials for MPC and SWISS and his short films: ‘A Bug's Story' - “Life in Smoke - Una Vita in Fumo” and worked on a new short film.

He worked in London as a 3D animation supervisor for Double Negative on the animation project ‘Ron's Gone Wrong' and is currently working at MPC with Robert Zemeckis as lead 3D animator on the Walt Disney feature film ‘Pinocchio'.

View online : https://filmfreeway.com/submissions...

Salted Black Tea

Admin — 2025-03-16T19:58:59Z

Honourable Mention

Salted Black Tea is one of six films that we consider particularly successful and significant alongside the winners of the 2nd Taxifilmfest 2025.

In Salted Black Tea, we discover an alleged cultural tradition that is in fact a consequence of the colonisation of the Indian subcontinent with deadly consequences. The British colonialists discovered that they could keep the tea pickers working longer by adding salt to their tea to compensate for the electrolytes they lost through sweating. This has become a tradition that, combined with malnutrition, kills scores of women every year in Assam.

The barely noticeable legacy of British colonialism reminds us of the colonisation of Germany and the world by the Googles, Ubers and AirBnBs. Under the pretext of greater efficiency and cheaper offers, living culture, local customs and traditions are being destroyed by exploitative, inhuman technologies and business models. The film Salted Black Tea by Rakesh Ranjan shows how ingrained dangerous attitudes can be combated. It is about knowledge transfer and education.

Plot

The story is about a small tea stall owner named ‘Molly Chaiwala' who works at night on a street in Guwahati. He is quite famous as he has some regular customers who appreciate his salted tea recipes. One day, a motorcyclist accompanied by his sister visits the stand and orders exotic black Assam tea. The motorcyclist is impressed by Molly's tea-making style. But then a shocking truth comes to light.

Team

Rakesh Ranjan Das: Director, Writer, Producer
Subhajit Purkayastha: ‘Molly Chaiwala'
Steward Sangma: ‘Customer 1'
Gautam Sarkar: ‘Customer 2'
Rakesh Ranjan Das: ‘Driver'
Monalisa Das: ‘sister of the driver'
Sunny Bongshiary: ‘customer 3'

Runtime: 6 minutes 42 seconds
Release Date: 10 January 2025
Production Budget: $500
Country of Origin: India
Country of Shooting: India
Language: Hindi
Shooting Format: 35 mm
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Film colour: Colour
First feature: Yes
Student project: No

Director's Biography – Rakesh Ranjan Das

Rakesh Ranjan Das was born and raised in Assam. He began his professional acting career in 2007 when he joined the Nexus Drama Group while completing his Bachelor of Engineering at SSIT Tumkur. The Nexus Group actively participated in festivals organised by the Engineering and Medical colleges and Rakesh won over 18 awards in skits, mime, one-act plays, street theatre and monodramas. He is currently a member of the Script Writer Association (SWA). In 2014, Rakesh took a screenwriting course from Kiran Roa and Aamir Khan. He is also a musician and has played in various Western rock bands in Bangalore, composing songs in Hindi and English. He appeared in two episodes of the famous Assamese television series ‘Beharbari Outpost' in 2023. In October 2024, he played a supporting role in the Assamese feature film ‘Jai Hanuman'. He was one of the assistant directors of the Hindi feature film ‘Mrigayaa', which is expected to be released in cinemas in 2025. In 2024, Rakesh played a supporting role in a short film called ‘Purple', which was submitted for short film awards. ‘Salted Black Tea' is the first film he directed, in December 2024, and will be submitted to various short film awards in 2025.

View online : https://filmfreeway.com/submissions...

Not buried yet

Admin — 2025-03-16T19:58:34Z

Honourable Mention

Not buried yet is one of six films that we consider particularly successful and significant alongside the winners of the 2nd Taxifilmfest 2025.

We are impressed by the fates and images from a country scarred by war. The staging in the smallest of spaces and the simultaneous presentation of the country in which the story takes place are subtle and haunting. They remind us of the reports of our parents and grandparents from the destroyed Germany after 1945, of poverty and tragic entanglements that destroyed families. The film's great achievement is to depict war as a series of inevitable events, the loss of human dignity, grief and the struggle for survival as part of a deeply shaken society.

Plot

Three siblings embark on a journey to their village to bury their deceased father under difficult circumstances. An unexpected event changes the course of their journey and brings the family's hidden secrets to light.

Director's Biography – Alkaseem Ahmad

Al-kassem Ahmed is a Damascus, Syria-based director and cinematographer. He graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in 2019, specialising in audiovisual arts. Ahmed has worked as a lighting and camera operator on numerous commercials and short films, including the short documentary The People Above, which won the Golden Tanit for best short documentary at the 33rd Carthage Film Festival. He has also worked as an assistant director on various films and TV series. Ahmed has also directed two short fiction films: the first, ‘The Last Shot', in 2021, and the second, ‘Not Buried Yet', in 2024.

Team

Alkaseem Ahmad: Director
Ahmad Adra: Screenwriter
Samer Rahhal: Producer
Wael Taha: editor
Basil Sarawliji: cinematographer

Project title (in the original language): لم يدفن بعد
Running time: 21 minutes 8 seconds
Completion date: 30 September 2024
Production budget: 30,000 USD
Country of origin: Syrian Arab Republic
Country of Origin: Syrian Arab Republic
Language: Arabic
Format: Digital
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Colour: Colour

View online : https://filmfreeway.com/submissions...

Wild Horses

Admin — 2025-03-16T19:57:58Z

Honourable Mention

Wild Horses is one of six films that we consider particularly successful and significant alongside the winners of the 2nd Taxi Film Festival 2025.

For taxi drivers, petrol stations are part of their workplace. In this film, unexpected users of this facility appear, who question everything we have experienced at petrol stations. The horsepower of our vehicles is no longer an abstract measure of engine performance, but rather a ‘real' being, a machine that has come to life, existing autonomously, yet still needing to be refuelled. The conclusion of the short film suggests that further unexpected developments await us. The images in the film are almost too perfect, its symbolism is striking.

Synopsis

The film ‘Wild Horses' tells the story of a group of wild horses fighting for survival in the future.

The film was produced using AI generation technology and can be viewed as a science fiction thriller concept film created using the latest AI technology. Although the production of the film is mainly through AI generation technology, the content of the story and the film style are in no way constrained by the technology. It is a short film completed in the form of traditional scriptwriting and filming. From conception to production completion, the film's cycle took two weeks.

Team

Wenjie Lee: Director
Zhengyang Yin: Director
Elsa Zhang: Producer
Zhengyang Yin: Screenwriter

Genres: Mystery, Science Fiction
Runtime: 2 minutes 30 seconds
Completion Date: 20 October 2024
Country of Origin: China
Country of Shooting: China
Language: English
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Film Colour: Colour
First-time filmmaker: No
Student project: No

View online : https://filmfreeway.com/submissions...

Half Soul

Admin — 2025-03-15T08:49:09Z

Honourable Mention

A moitié d'âme is one of six films that we consider to be particularly successful and significant alongside the winners of the 2nd Taxifilmfest 2025.

Although taxis are not the subject of the film, it impressively depicts a situation reminiscent of the fate of taxi drivers impoverished by uberisation, insecurity and exploitation. In reality, the colleagues expropriated by the policy of the Secretary of Transportation Scheuer often have no choice but to go as petitioners to authorities who grant them social benefits like alms in exchange for their soul. This perception of one's own situation, how it makes you sick through hopelessness, has been intensively traced by Marwen Trabelsi.

Content

In a world dominated by materialism and devoid of humanity, selling souls is big business. Suicidal people offer their souls in exchange for a monetary value that is paid to their family. It is the fantastic story of a father who is forced to sell his soul to save the life of his dying daughter.

Director's Biography – Marwen Trabelsi

Marwen Trabelsi is a Tunisian photographer and director.
After studying audiovisual media, he made several experimental films, two fiction films and three documentaries.
His films have earned him numerous national and international awards, including 1st prize at the Douz Doc Days, 1st prize for documentaries at the Cam Film Festival in Egypt in 2015, and four prizes for his last feature film ‘The Man Who Became a Museum', which was made in 2019.

Crew and Cast

Marwen Trabelsi: Director
Marwen Trabelsi: Screenwriter
Hager Nefzi: Producer
Abdelkader Ben Said: ‘Naji'

Runtime: 23 minutes 14 seconds
Completion date: 10 July 2021
Production budget: $15,000
Country of origin: Tunisia
Country of shooting: Tunisia
Language: Arabic
Recording format: 4K
Aspect ratio: 16/9
Film colour: Colour

View online : https://filmfreeway.com/submissions...

2nd Taxifilmfest 2025 – Review and Outlook

Admin — 2025-03-08T11:56:06Z

Interview and picture Dr Wolf Siegert, with Irene Jaxtheimer, Klaus Meier and Stephan Berndt on 22 February 2025 at 10:30 p.m.

WS: Today is 22 February 2025, and we are here in a small group of curators at the end of the youngest festival during this Berlinale. and there are people here in this curatorium that I already know from the time of the Berlinale when we started to defend ourselves against certain developments in the mid-eighties and to say that we now also want to raise the electronic media in this film world, but now something completely different is the case.

We have electronic media with which we can produce films, not just us but everyone in this big wide world, and for the second time, and for the first time in a really impressive process, we have managed to call on all these people and say ‘all these films that have anything to do with the topic of taxis, should they be submitted to this second Berlin Taxifilmfest.

And the curators of this Taxifilmfest are sitting across from me now, we have already spent a very long evening together here, to distribute the prizes, to show the films again. So we shouldn't exaggerate with time, but we should at least give them a chance to introduce themselves briefly. Ladies first.

Who, what and why

IJ: My name is Irene Jaxtheimer. I have been in this cultural group since last year. Together we pulled the Taxifilmfest out of the ground last year to defend ourselves against Uber-Macht, which was sponsoring the Berlinale at the time. We succeeded. They are no longer a sponsor and we made the film festival with Klaus' ideas. We didn't go for well-known films like last year, but tried something completely new this year, and it worked well. We had fun and also attracted some people who showed interest. We work very well together and feel comfortable with each other, even if it's ten long days. Now we're glad to have a break for a while.

SB: I'm Stephan Berndt, I have a taxi company here in Berlin with 50 employees. A few years ago, 10 to 12 years ago, I founded a taxi association to represent the multi-car companies that work properly, because that didn't exist before.

We got to know each other better back then, I brought Irene onto the board, and she is still on it today. I said goodbye to them and joined this, let me call it, ‘fun guerilla'. As part of our work, which we also plan to expand a bit beyond the Taxifilmfest with a Taxi Culture Festival, which we would like to organise. Klaus also has a few ideas, which he will talk about in a moment.

We are now pursuing the idea that taxis are part of the culture of this city, and that all the people who work in this industry are so much more than just drivers who drive a vehicle around the city. They are artists, they are people with many qualities and talents, and we would like to see this piece of culture preserved, not only for economic reasons, although that is of course the first thought, but also to make clear the difference to the platform capitalists who are moving in here, and who are simply only interested in money, who create bad working conditions, precarious employment, who plunder the welfare state, who work illegally.

We want to counter that with something that has existed for a long time, that has grown, that is part of this thing, and we are now also using these means, and it's a lot of fun. It's much more creative than just saying ‘I'm against it, and I think it's shit' and going out on the streets and protesting. That's all part of it, but we're just taking it on this cultural track.

KM: I'm Klaus Meier and I'm really happy to have you for this project and otherwise. We've known each other for over a year in this strange collaboration, and we can do more. To me that is actually the most important thing in the whole story. And as far as art and trade policy are concerned, we'll see how far we get with that.

I can only say that the attempt, on the recommendation of Hiro [1], to make a worldwide call for submissions and to pay a hundred dollars for it, delivered a huge bundle of data junk that was completely unusable for us, from which, out of 1640 submissions, we were then able to select around 60 really good, usable films, about half of which we were able to show, and we have a half that is still waiting for us to provide them with a forum in which they will be noticed.

This has two consequences. On the one hand, we create a platform for the filmmakers who want to and should be seen because they have something relevant to say, and we have another opportunity to invite people to engage in self-reflection, to argue about what we see, and thus to make some progress.

Apart from that, this year we managed to hold a workshop on counter-cartography, in which we worked out, on a small scale, what taxi drivers can do, what taxi drivers are capable of, what you can't do with the app and especially with the Uber system. I think this is an important contribution to seeing how taxis will fare in the future.

Some things will end, they have to. Uber, for example, is a transitional solution. All these unqualified drivers won't survive for long. They'll be replaced by robots at some point, but the taxi drivers who have what we've developed in this workshop are unbeatable, you can't get rid of them with these automated methods. And that's good, because these are the people who can do something for the city and its people.

That is the political aim of the Taxifilmfest, and the aesthetic aim is simply to watch and discover good films, and I think we've been lucky in that some really great stuff has come in.

discoveries

WS: After these introductory statements, you would actually need a whole hour of broadcasting time to unfold everything that has been said here. We don't have that option, but today we can actually just build a small trigger, a small impetus, to spark curiosity. And that curiosity is the same whether you're sitting in a car being driven from A to B and suddenly learn what's actually happening out there on the road, and maybe even in the mind of the person driving the car, and maybe even fantasising about what's happening in your own head while you're driving through these streets.

This interaction between people, machines and landscapes is a truly magnificent event, which has become clear to me from my own experiences and from what I have seen, and from very, very, very different experiences and cultures. That is probably what is so impressive, because we have had images from all over the world, because everyone has gathered here. In the past, my experience was always that there were voluntary and involuntary taxi drivers. The involuntary ones are always the ones who somehow had to feed themselves during their studies, and the voluntary ones are the ones who actually made a career out of it.

Today, all these boundaries are disappearing, and completely new horizons are developing. I would like to use the second round for you to talk about the horizons that have opened up for you as a result of watching these films.

IJ: It's like when you're in a taxi and you drive people around, you start talking and hear some very exciting stories. There are life stories, people are liberated in a taxi, it's sometimes like a confessional, the passengers tell their stories freely, because they know they will most likely never see each other again, but they unburden themselves. Sometimes you hear stories that really touch you, or you are impressed by celebrities you have sitting in the taxi. It's always an encounter. Not everyone always wants to talk, you can tell that too, then you leave them alone. When you realise that someone wants to get something off their chest, I don't do that so often anymore, but it's still an exciting thing, and that's life. Sometimes life takes place in the back seat of a taxi.

SB: What Irene just mentioned, first of all what happens in the taxi, in motion, rushing through a city like that, with how many people you come across in a big city, and that's where the festival comes full circle again. There are people who have travelled the world a lot. I've also been on the road a lot, but I haven't travelled to all the continents. There is still a lot for me to see, but what was always exciting in this city was that you met the world in this city. You have always experienced a piece of this world and these perspectives in your car. Not only in the car, but especially there, because it's a very intimate space. ‘Confessional' is a very good term. People open up because they know they'll never see you again, maybe you just take a shine to each other, and then it all just flows out. That's one thing.

But the second point that I see in the process, which has emerged in our work, is quite simply this concept of culture, which can and must be broadly defined, and there are so many areas in our lives, in this city in which we live, that are being attacked by the greed of capitalism. Whether it's the real estate industry that drives out the clubs and drives people out of the city centre because they can no longer afford the apartments, so much is threatened, and our industry is also threatened by these illegal activities.

For me, the whole thing so far, our joint work has generated this kick, that's why there's this cultural festival, we have to create networks, all these threatened segments of this city, they actually have to join forces, and not take over from this austerity idea because one or two euros are cheaper, and bring this awareness through our actions into the minds of young people, who are now very screen-savvy, who sometimes don't even go out into the real world, but only move in their digital world, to maybe open a few windows and find a few points of contact, so that they can practice solidarity with each other against what is destroying us all. That's what motivates me in all of this.

KM: Yes, you're right. Of course. What did I discover at this festival? That it's a bit like this everywhere. There are differences, different business models for taxis and rental cars in the world. The basic mechanisms are the same everywhere, and it is the case everywhere that qualified drivers who also have at least a minimal knowledge of culture, or a little more, are able to give their work a completely different meaning, consciously or unconsciously.

Our Chinese taxi driver, who forms the link between all the stories in today's film, is such an example. He is a man who has been brought low by personal tragedy, who in turn encounters the many effects of social developments on the people in his country in his taxi, and who then shows us what he sees. This film is constructed in such a way that it is this man who shows us his world or the world around him.

I think that's what's really interesting, that these encounters, these experiences, if they are properly processed, if they are cultivated with a little effort, can be very fruitful for many people.

The multitude of entries and perspectives that we have experienced this year can now be combined in such a way that something more than just a little fun is created. ‘A bunch of taxi drivers get together and watch films from their DVD collection', but this time we have a treasure trove of perspectives, from different countries with different intentions, staged in a wide variety of dramatic ways, and all of this can lead us to a new image of ourselves. That's actually the most interesting thing.

SB: One sentence about this: Because it is always uprooting and dehumanisation that we experience, regardless of the culture. The original, whether it was those old rickshaws or our old cabs, that was our world, and we are literally being torn out of this traditional world, uprooted by these new mechanisms that are so effective. I think it destroys so much of what we understand as our world. It's actually the same worldwide.

The winners

WS: And with the presentation that we have just heard from the People's Republic of China, we are at one of the three films that have received an award. This is the final round. Each of you should now pick a film and describe it again for our listeners, and of course for the listeners, and for all those who are in between, and of course for them. And, Klaus, since you started with one film, you can briefly outline it again, and the other two will speak again with the other two films, and then we're almost done.

Thank you for your attention so far, and as you can see, it is and remains exciting. Klaus Meier:

China [2]

KM: This year, we organised a film evening called “In China it's almost like here”. What “is almost like here” is the isolation of people, their exposure to technology and bureaucratic processes. In the film, which is also called “Lonely City” and is set in, around and above Chongqing, a taxi driver who has suffered a tragic fate himself discovers, in three episodes, the fates of other people who have to deal with these modern developments. They are all confronted with something so big, so oversized, that it almost becomes inhuman again.

The film shows a world in which the transformation of nature through massive construction projects is creating monstrous landscapes that are eating into the historical landscapes where, in the eighth century, Li Bai, Du Fu and other famous poets succumbed to their tragic fates at the time and made poems out of them. And today, I believe that we have the chance, unlike those poets who were only individuals, to set things in motion through networking, whether in China or here. That's happening. This ‘setting in motion' is, so to speak, subcutaneous. You can feel it all the time in the films, that people are acting. That's what gives me hope, that things are possible regardless of political systems.

Germany [3]

SB: My hope is that by showing these films, we can make other people aware that we are all in this together. The films themselves are not necessarily hopeful in the end, some of them were very dark, frustrating, depressing. I think, when I now take ‘It's about Luis', of parents who have no time for their children because they have to work until they drop, who are stuck in jobs where they are more or less enslaved, have to work inhumanely. Many people suffer under these conditions, and by showing this from a variety of perspectives, whether it's the parcel delivery driver in the UK or the taxi driver in China or in Berlin, it doesn't really matter. We have these living conditions everywhere, and they are dehumanising us more and more.

I think that if we realise that this is the downfall of our culture, of whatever culture, whether here or elsewhere, then we should actually be fighting against it globally. It is encouraging to see a bit of awareness of this in other people who watch the films.

Berlin [4]

IJ: Then there was the film from the 80s, when I had just come to Berlin, about the bar Ruine. At the time, the Ruine was a bombed-out house, of which only one dining room, the first floor and the cellar remained. One of the taxi drivers, Knut Hoffmeister, who was also involved in the sponti-left scene at the time, provided Super 8 footage of it, which in turn was developed into a film by the two directors from Munich who are still studying at the film academy. They conducted interviews with people from that time who are now very old, and brought it closer to us. Knut Hoffmeister with his band “Die notorischen Reflexe”, which, as the name suggests, was a bit experimental in terms of music, which caused a bit of a stir, or the squatter scene, which was happening at the same time, things were being moved. It shouldn't stay the same, but it should be shaken up, which is what happened.

The Ruine was then closed, which also led to protests, and that was the reason why we showed this film in the club Wilde Renate, because they will also have to close at the end of this year.

It's a club that worked well for a long time, but then the money wasn't enough to pay the high rents, and so culture and clubs are being closed down. That was the right place to show this film. We also got young people to deal with it, which is also interesting, who are actually far removed from the taxi, normally in this day and age. It touched me that they were then interested in such things, in an old story from the eighties, great! They brought it up again and we can discuss what it was like back then and what it is like now, and whether we still have hope that there could be a rescue again.

And now? What comes next.

WS: The final round has nothing to do with the topic of the end, because we are only at the beginning of a development of two years now, which will certainly continue, and which can certainly be studied over the next months and perhaps years at the website www.taxifilmfest.de, but rather, at the end, I will give you the microphone again for a question that I did not ask, but which might be important to you, and to which you might have an answer that I cannot possibly know, because I did not ask the question. So, it's getting absurd, it's getting philosophical, but maybe it also offers an opportunity to just say something, because you didn't make a film, but what would still be important for you to share with our audience, and that's why the microphone is going around again through this group that has found each other so wonderfully. Ladies first.

IJ: It would be interesting to ask whether we could make a film ourselves that would bring us a little closer to the facts, which we know, and could present something like that from our point of view. Of course, you would need a lot of time and leisure, ideas and protagonists for that. I would be interested to see if we could manage that.

SB: Without being asked, it's always a bit difficult because we've already told so much, but I believe that precisely this connection between film as a medium and different cultures, but also with this journey through time that we've been doing again and again, we were in the seventies, we were also in the future, we saw robot films, all these topics can really lead us to address people who are much younger than us with our project, but to whom these worlds then open up. That would be wonderful if we could succeed to some extent. Young people are not as apolitical as many of us old people always think. I see it in my daughters and their circles, the way they are out and about. They are receptive, but something has to come from our generation, instead of just partying and seeing how the month goes by. I would be very happy if we could contribute to that next year.

KM: What's new? Yes, what you say is coming, and we are also doing that with the film, with what we have made ourselves, of course, exactly, there are already some approaches. What would also be important to me is that what we did not do last year for many reasons this year, namely a proper evaluation of everything that has happened now, what we have seen, what we can discuss with each other, develop the contacts that have arisen into projects, that would interest me, and there are plenty of ideas now, be it a Taxi Film Festival extended, be it the Taxi Film Festival Orchestra for “Fête de la musique”, be it, you name it. Something is coming.

WS: And with that, this conversation is over, but the project is just beginning to unfold, I think that has become clear now. If I have managed to contribute my share to the further development of the evaluation with this little conversation, then everything has been done to ensure that in a few years we will have a ‘Taxinale' at which everything appears in the same quality as we have seen on the red carpet next door today.

Thank you for the conversation, thank you for your commitment, and now have a wonderful evening.

This text was first published as a podcast at DaybyDay ISSN 1860-2967 under the title TaxifilmFestFinale.

[1] Hiroomi Fukuzawa is a long-standing colleague of Ulrich Gregor at the International Forum of New Cinema at the Berlinale

[2] “China” represents the many excellent submissions from Asia, South America and Africa that we did not mention in the short closing discussion.

[3] Taxi drivers in Germany are in a similar situation to their colleagues in other European countries. We will talk about the stories that have emerged from this context elsewhere.

[4] Berlin is not Germany. This was even more true during the “Wall era” than it is today.