Megacities

Simple craftsmen in Mumbai, petty thieves and prostitutes in Mexico City, assembly line workers in Moscow and a swindler in New York. At first sight, these figures, often living on the fringes of society in four metropolises, aren’t really connected. The hawker in Mexico City sells drumsticks he cooked himself, while the hairdresser in Mumbai receives his customers in a converted garage. These two know nothing about each other’s lives, but they share a harsh, daily struggle for survival in which the likelihood of progress is minimal. Nonetheless, each of them holds fast to their own dreams. Director Michael Glawogger is primarily a superb photographer who, by selecting his images with great care, gets down to the heart of the matter without much comment. His visual composition and editing style is never exaggerated and he doesn’t embellish things, but demonstrates that a heroic urge to survive underlies the daily drabness and misery of life in a big city. Along the way, he also manages to reveal the individual character of each metropolis.