Schwarzfahrer

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Schwarzfahrer is a 1994 Oscar-winning German ten-minute short, directed by Pepe Danquart. It promotes racial tolerance. The German term "Schwarzfahrer" means "fare dodger", but with can be read literally (with some license) as "black passenger" (black used here in the sense of illegal). The title therefore is a pun, as it plays in a tram in Berlin.

It can be watched on YouTube (or, if you prefer it recapped for you, see the synopsis page).


Tropes used in Schwarzfahrer include:
  • Answer Cut: Cue the punk entering the tram.
  • Crying Wolf: The old hag at the end, when trying to explain the conductor what happened.
  • Deliberately Monochrome
  • Eat the Evidence: Not really evidence, but I think you get the point.
  • For the Evulz: So... not that the old hag had any specified reason to affront the black guy. Neither do any other seperationists out there.
  • Kick the Bitch: Yeah, it did feel really good when the old hag was taken care of in the end.
  • Manipulative Bastard: The old lady tries to be one. Guess what... nobody listens. And guess something else... the only one who at least somewhat supports her is probably demented as hell. You could actually talk him into anything, really.
  • Racist Grandma: The hag. Resultant from Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!
  • Refuge in Audacity: Rather brilliantly done--of course no one is going to believe the racist lady when she says the black guy ate her ticket.
  • Scenery Porn: Some. Many pics of Berlin's inner city are shown, e.g. outside the tram windows.
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Again, the hag.
  • Stealth Pun: The title.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Subverted. But the attitude and the age of the old lady in 1994 might fit. And the old man's probably too.