Taxi Blues is all hyperbolic atmosphere; it's one garish, semi-improvisatory big scene after another. But the bald, glowering Mamanov -- who's a rock star in the Soviet Union -- performs with a desperate, bebop fervor that's hard to forget.

It is clear from the energy in the story that Lounguine has been waiting a long time to get his hands on the camera, and his point of view swoops and soars through Moscow like a bird released from its cage.

Taxi Blues is a peculiar form of entertainment, too related to torture. [Full review in Spanish]

It's a tale of unspoken -- and unspeakable -- desire between two ostensibly straight men, as powerful in its passion and repression as, say. Midnight Cowboy or Scarecrow.