SYNOPSIS

Recently divorced, 35-year-old single mother Larisa is forced to get her license to navigate her new reality. Her instructor teaches her the "small illegalities" needed to survive Bucharest’s rigged system of bribes and traffic. Frustrated, Larisa abandons the lesson mid-traffic. From the driver’s seat to the hostile streets on foot with her young son, her entire day becomes a darkly comic allegory for survival in an unforgiving urban labyrinth.

INTENTION

This film stems from my severe anxiety around driving exams. Discovering a 2010 prosecutor's file on driving school bribery made my phobia painfully relevant to Romania's reality. The paradox between a banal driving test and catastrophic road culture inspired this story. Larisa is not complicit in the fraud; she is an angry witness to the collusion between her instructor and the police. Through her, we explore the moral gray zones and hidden violence of Romanian urban life.

Formally, half the film unfolds inside the car. Inspired by Jafar Panahi's Taxi (2015), the windshield acts as a central motif and cinematic screen, marked by the city's chaotic traces. The structure hinges on a predator-prey dynamic between driver and pedestrian, building toward a climax in which the car becomes a lethal hunter within the urban labyrinth. Ultimately, as Larisa navigates the streets with her child, the film exposes the dual threat of the city: the driver trapped in systemic chaos and the pedestrian vulnerable to its aggression.