Hinzpeter’s documentary Korea at the Crossroads broke through the martial law suppression of the press to become the first, and only, documentary evidence of the 1980 massacre in Gwangju. If it were not for the brave Korean taxi driver KIM Sa-bok and the devoted young people of Gwangju, that documentary footage would never have been seen” said Hinzpeter in his acceptance speech for the 2nd annual Song Geon-ho Press Award he received for his support of Korean democratization, which became the central story for A Taxi Driver. “My only thought was to share with the world the truth I was seeing with my own eyes. The events of May 1980 in Gwangju, South Korea are brought to the screen through the real-life characters of German reporter Jürgen Hinzpeter and KIM Sa-bok, the taxi driver who drove him to Gwangju.

What began as an easy fare becomes a life-or-death struggle in the midst of the Gwangju Democratization Movement, a critical event in modern South Korean history. They arrive to find a city under siege by the military government, with the citizens - led by a determined group of college students - rising up to demand freedom. In this powerful true story set in 1980, a down-on-his-luck taxi driver from Seoul is hired by a foreign journalist who wants to go to the city of Gwangju. As is also made clear in the Syrian submission for Oscar nomination, Little Ghandi, the people’s will can prevail if we work together.

Working together for good can far outweigh the pervasive bad we are subjected to on a daily basis.

More than inspiring, in today’s world, as the precarious balance between the people and their governments is weighted down by disproportionate wealth, power, negligence and abuse audiences here and everywhere need what this film has to offer.

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