Metal and Melancholy

In 1992, Peru was just emerging from one of its darkest moments in its entire republican history (1821- onwards). A cataclysmic economic meltdown and over 10 years of death and conflict brought upon by the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla had left deep scars in the Peruvian population. Furthermore, Alberto Fujimori had just dissolved the congress and senate in order to obtain extraordinary faculties and implement harsh economic measures. It is amidst this critical moment in the history of Peru that filmmaker Heddy Honigmann chronicles the views and lives of 14 real life taxi drivers in Lima. They represent the perseverance and ingenuity with which the everyday man survived and overcame the turbulence of the times in order to achieve advancement for themselves and their families.