Schwarzfahrer

With the advancement of time & technology, do people change their way of thinking?  The answer lies in the short film “Schwarzfahrer” directed by Pepe Danquart at the end of 20^th century.  “Schwarzfahrer is a German word meaning “Black rider”.

It was filmed inside some city of Germany & starts with a train shot focusing on daily life of people with an amazing cinematography. A black man(Paul Outlaw) boards a tram along with other passengers & asks an elderly white lady(Senta Moira) that the seat just beside her is occupied or not. She gives an insolence look & completely ignores him.

After taking the seat, the lady starts expressing her hatred towards the immigrants from other countries, calling them illegal & indirectly insults this black man. The train was occupied with other passengers from different countries & they felt disturbed with her comments on them. The situation was becoming tensed with her continuous remarks & it gives an impression as if the black man will go out of his temper ending up attacking her. But he remained silent while tolerating the humiliation he was facing from her. After a while the tram stops & a ticket checker enters. The lady still complaining takes out her ticket & all of a sudden the black man did something unexpected. Though one short scene from the Bollywood film “DEVD” is inspired from this act but it’s ok. We are all inspired with something.

Finally when the ticket checker arrives at her seat & asks for her ticket, she said that the black nigger sitting beside her has eaten up the ticket. Upon showing his valid ticket, the ticket checker didn't believe her excuse & tells her to come along with him. Though many passengers were aware of what’s going on, they remained silent to teach her a lesson.

So who is the black rider? The title “Schwarzfahrer” itself is the moral of this short film.