Passageraren
Sweden,
1995, 78 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Michael Druker
- prod
-
Peter Kropénin
- scr
-
Michael Druker
- cam
-
Harald Paalgard
- editor
-
Susanne Linnman
- cast
-
Amanda Ooms, Peter Andersson, Mathias Eckhoff
- source
-
Omega Film & Television
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
OTHER
A tense and distracted woman (Amanda Ooms) disembarks from a train and seats herself in a waiting taxi. With the engine running and the cabbie seemingly uninterested in the fare, the woman steals the cab. Stopping briefly at a roadside food stand to grab a snack, she returns to discover an eerie and frightening passenger (Peter Andersson) seated in the rear. After she informs him she’s not on duty, he puts a gun barrel to the back of her head and coldly commands, “Drive.” With this enticing opening, director Michael Druker sets the stage for a taut and fascinating thriller/road movie about two mysterious travelers going to an unknown destination to engage in unknown acts. Though Druker keeps his characters nameless and their backgrounds obscured, his spare script hints at numerous scenarios as the woman pilots her way through the windy and rainy night. The passenger shows her a picture of his young daughter and says she was taken from him and he’s going to get her back. A radio news broadcast reports that someone has escaped from a high-security prison and authorities are on a manhunt. Or is it a womanhunt? Like all intriguing mysteries, The Passenger is filled with inventive twists and plenty of red herrings. Starkly shot and highlighting a grim Swedish landscape dotted with depressing truck stops and seamy characters, Druker’s impressive first feature should secure him a spot as one of Sweden’s new rising talents.
—Michael Arago
FACTOID #347
The world premiere of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert took place at the 1994 San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre.
