Night on Earth

Director Jim Jarmusch's episodic slice-of-life drama follows the adventures of five different cabdrivers in five different cities all over the world. In Los Angeles, a young female driver (Winona Ryder) charms her snooty passenger--an agent (Gena Rowlands) who believes she's found her latest star in the tomboyish cabbie. In New York, a man (Giancarlo Esposito) gets into a taxi only to find that his immigrant driver (Armin Mueller-Stahl) has no idea how to drive. The Paris segment features an angry sightless woman (Beatrice Dalle) who provokes her African driver (Isaach de Bankole). In Rome, Roberto Benigni stars as a hyperactive taxi driver who confesses his odd sexual practices to a clergyman (Paolo Bonacelli) and is shocked when the priest has a heart attack. The film's climactic scene in Helsinki follows a cabdriver who listens to a tragic and poignant tale from one of his three inebriated passengers only to top him with his own, sadder story. (official distributor synopsis)