WINNER ANNOUNCED: Taxi Blues!

2/25/2009 Posted by Admin

When Shlykov, a hard-working, anti-semitic taxi driver, is stiffed for a fare by Lyosha, a Jewish musician, the two form a bizarre love-hate relationship in this darkly comedic look at Moscow in the post-glasnost era. At first, class and race ... Full Descriptiondivision make friendship for these two nearly impossible, until they both learn they aren't so different after all.

Shlikov, a Moscow cabby scours the city in search of a passenger who stiffed him. He finally locates Liosha -- an alcoholic playing a saxophone on the street. He confiscates the sax but upon discovering the price of the instrument he starts feeling guilty and goes looking for Liosha. An unlikely, stormy friendship develops when the antisemitic taxi driver, regrading the Jewish Jazz musician as genius, takes him in and tries to sober him up.

This ironic look at daily life in Russia's black market economy centers on a workaholic taxi driver pushed to break out of his self-imposed limitations by an irritating -- but fancy-free -- Jazz musician. Winner, Best Director, Cannes Film Festival.