AllMovie

A cranky cab driver's unlikely friendship with a six-year-old girl proves mutually beneficial in this tender comedy drama from Germany. Hartmut Mackowiak isn't what you'd call an extrovert. An aging curmudgeon, his attitude gets even worse when his wife of 30 years walks out on him. In the days that follow, it seems that Hartmut's spirits have been irreversibly dampened. Then Hayat and her mother stepped into his cab, and changed his life. As Hayat's mother makes plans for a trip home to Istanbul, she makes plans to leave the little girl with her grandmother in Germany. But before the little girl reaches her destination, her mother falls into a coma. At first Hartmut is in no mood to help Hayat. The more he gets to know her, however, the stronger the tenuous bond between them grows. Later, as the Hartmut attempts to ensure that Hayat is well cared for, he realizes that sometimes life's best surprises come at the most unexpected of times.