Night on Earth

Five taxis, five cities, one night. We begin our journey in Los Angeles, with the film’s characters, streaked with dark humor, immersed in city and neon lights, to follow the nights of New York, Paris, Rome and greet the pale winter dawn in Helsinki. For a moment, drivers and passengers share a special bond - taxis are confessionals, places where paths of people from different worlds, with different status and dreams unexpectedly intersect. Someone gains insight into someone else's life for a moment and may leave their mark, or share a new perspective. There will be a moment of clairvoyance on a Paris street, Rome will comically combine the sacred and the profane, and Helsinki will be sobering. But these weren’t Jarmusch's cities of first choice. Instead, he followed the location of the actors he wanted to work with: Gena Rowlands and Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Giancarlo Esposito, Isaac de Bankolé and Béatrice Dalle, Roberto Benigni and Paolo Bonacelli, as well as Matti Pellonpää, Sakari Kuosmanen, Kari Kyösti Väänänen, Tomi Salmela, known from films by Aki Kaurismäki. The script was written in just eight days, while Jim Jarmusch's longtime collaborator, Tom Waits, penned the music.