‘I want you to be proud of me,’ the young Dutch actor says to his 8mm camera. During his stay in a hotel in Mumbai, he keeps a video diary for his father is going senile in Holland. In India, he’s been given a role as a colonial in a nostalgic Bollywood musical. The taxi driver doesn’t have to explain to him that the most productive film industry of the world is to be found in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.
Encouraged by a girl who approaches him in the street, wide-eyed, begging for a better future, the guilt-plagued Nick undergoes a metamorphosis that bears a slight resemblance to that of Travis Bickle, the protagonist in Taxi Driver. Finally, he cuts his hair short and offers himself as a Christ figure in Hindu-land in order to right a few social wrongs such as arranged marriages, a shortage of medical care and child labour. In doing so, Nick reveals himself to be both a naive and arrogant Westerner who has little understanding of the culture he’s trying to elevate. Despite all his good intentions, he is greeted only by incredulity.
Film details
- Country of production
- Netherlands
- Year
- 2009
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2009
- Length
- 85'
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
