Metal and Melancholy

Metal and Melancholy, 1993. A film by Heddy Honigmann. 80 min. Color.

Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films, 32 Court Street, 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; phone [phone] or [phone], Fax [phone], http://www. frif.com

In an opening scene from Metal and Melancholy a young man exhibits his dilapidated car, which he has turned into a source of income by affixing a "taxi" sticker on its cracked windshield. The driver's side door then falls off as he opens it. The vehicle has no ignition, but starts by connecting wires hidden under the steer- ing wheel and camouflaged by bogus wires to stymie thieves. The trunk closes by wrapping a wire around the license plate. Rust has corroded gaping holes in the floor, and a leak in the radiator means the car cannot travel 30 blocks of Lima's rutted streets without new water. "My car might be finished but it can't be stolen," he boasts. Yet this is no ordinary taxi driver. "I wear a tie and carry a briefcase at work," he adds, in reference to his regular job in medical publicity.

Heddy Honigmann's film is about more than taxi drivers: Her interviews reveal the lives these middle-class limeños have left behind or struggled to supplement by converting private vehicles into taxis. "I wasn't born to be a taxi driver," growls a man whose job in international trade cannot support...