TV review
“From an Uber Driver’s Diary”
The lives of others – city stories from Hamburg
The Uber driver Ben (Kostja Ullmann) not only transports human passengers. This dog has a special fondness for the music of Herbert Grönemeyer.
© Joyn/Manju Sawhney
Ben drives passengers through the city with his Uber every day and gets to know different people and destinies in the process. Not much else happens in “From the Diary of an Uber Driver” – and yet the series develops a peculiar pull.
Ideally, every person is the captain of their life: the person who firmly holds the rudder and sets the course. With Ben (Kostja Ullmann) it’s a little different: The only course he sets is the route his car will take. He’s an Uber driver in Hamburg. Otherwise he is more of an extra in his life, hardly perceived by those around him as an independent person.
His passengers either treat him like air – chatting up the most intimate details of their sex lives while he’s behind the wheel – or they use him for their own ends. A woman rehearses with him, just as she dumps her boyfriend: “Your nose stinks,” she slams him in the head. Words that aren’t meant for him, but still irritate. Another guest forces the driver to pretend to be an ex-boss on the phone and give him the best references.
Things aren’t going much better in private either. Although Ben will be the father of a child in a few weeks, it was born out of a one-night stand and the mother (Claudia Eisinger) is not interested in a permanent relationship.
The series hits its own tone
“From the Diary of an Uber Driver” was commissioned by Joyn+ and is now celebrating its free TV premiere on ZDFneo. What makes the series so special: It strikes its own tone: no dramatic plot is promoted here, because nothing really happens here. Passengers get in and out of Ben’s car. As viewers, we get a glimpse into the lives of these people before they disappear. Once he transports a dog that likes the music of Herbert Grönemeyer.
It’s like in real life, there, too, our paths cross with other people and we only ever get a glimpse of it. The individual strands are not dissolved. The only common thread running through the six episodes is the gentle character development of Ben, who slowly takes responsibility for his own life and develops a tender relationship with his child’s mother.
Lots of stars
Top-class actors could be won for the roles of the passengers: Whether Fahri Yardim, Pheline Roggan, Edin Hasanovic, Lars Rudolph or Timur Bartels – they all wanted to take part in the series (script: Georg Lippert; directed by Julian Pörksen).
In addition to the calmly flowing narrative flow, it is above all the beguiling impressions of Hamburg that make this series so worth seeing. Anyone who has always wondered why Hanseatic citizens describe their homeland as “the most beautiful city in the world” will now understand where this talk comes from.
“From the diary of an Uber driver” starts on Tuesday, April 12 at 9:45 p.m. on ZDFneo. The complete season is available in the ZDF media library