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Moscow As if she doesn’t have enough problems, her taxi driver, instead
of bringing her to her hotel, abandons Kate in a bad neighborhood…where
she is robbed. Elena, an elder but street-wise denizen of the district,
has seen the mugging and takes it upon herself to help. Although they
can’t understand a single word the other speaks, Kate, after some
medicinal vodka, manages to get across that she needs to go to the police.
However, not only do the Moscow police operate differently than the constables
in London, they also have 18,000 soccer fans on their hands – but
far more importantly, they also want to see the game. With Elena’s
crafty help, though, the barriers fall. Now Kate gets to meet Elena’s
son, a taxi driver. Her taxi driver…
Istanbul Rocco, a German student, decides to fake a mugging in order to swindle
his insurance company. He finds a likely spot, then bolts out to the
street and frantically waves down a passing taxi. Instead of a humble
taxi driver who would deliver him hastily to a police station, Rocco
unfortunately winds up with gung-ho Celal, who speaks perfect German
and wants to go chase the non-existent bad guys. Finally at the station,
the unprepared Rocco gives a really lame account of his supposed mugging,
which, even though it raises eyebrows, prompts the inspector to handle
the case like it was some FBI serial murder. Locked in a room with a
million mug shots to check, Rocco is ready to freak. He calls Celal,
who rescues him from the cops, but Celal is now onto Rocco’s scam
and wants his cut. The two almost-partners-in-crime take a breather together
and watch the game… Santiago de Compostela The hapless Hungarian Gabor had been prompted by thoughts of suicide
to undertake a pilgrimage, on foot, to all the holy cathedrals of Spain.
At the Plaza de la Quintana his digital camera is stolen, along with
the 500 photos documenting his two-year trip. Luckily, he finds a policeman
nearby, but the laid-back, small-town commissioner Barreira seems more
interested in having a conversation about language and culture than helping
the desperate Gabor. After a short detour visiting all of his various
women, Barreira finally takes Gabor to the station, where the TV is already
blasting out the game. Gabor tries to get his story across several times,
Berlin The French couple, Claude and Rachida, are street performers who are
traveling through the “new” Europe looking to have big adventures
and make big money. The big money hasn’t happened, and now that
their van has broken down they are utterly broke. Frustrated, Claude
figures that staging a fake mugging could net them enough insurance dough
to keep them going. They walk through different neighborhoods, but through
their Parisian eyes everything just seems too clean and orderly. With
the help of a travel guide, they finally decide that Kreuzberg, with
its huge Turkish population, would be the likeliest place to be mugged.
Claude starts to “practice” their mugging, and as fate would
have it, a police van suddenly pulls up. As they start confusing Russians
and Turks and their story appears more and more ridiculous, they spontaneously
come up with a rather drastic change of plan, which turns out to be a
drastically bad idea… The game, for all, is still open… |
but the soccer match is way too distracting for the commissioner. Finally,
Barreira loses his patience and tells Gabor to come back tomorrow with
a better story. Gabor has lost all heart, but Barreira inspires him with
the parting words: “It’s not the photos, pilgrim, it’s
the way…”