Mototaxi

A ruthless saboteur, a betrayed motorcycle taxi driver, a murdered magician, and a long-simmering feud between neighbors: a collection of stories where violence and tension shape every fate.

Four tense and gripping stories unfold across very different settings, yet all share the same pulse: characters pushed to their limits, trapped in worlds defined by violence, suspicion, and survival.

In Fire on the River, an aging man named Günther embarks aboard the Trans Uruguay as it navigates the sweltering waters of the Paraná Mini River. He has a mission. Acting under orders from the feared criminal mastermind Sapo Goiriz, he must dismantle a drug-trafficking operation transporting cocaine hidden within the ship’s engine room. After locating the stash, Günther chooses a brutal solution: he sets the engine room ablaze. The resulting inferno engulfs the vessel, plunging passengers and crew into deadly chaos. Survivors and corpses are scattered by the river currents. On shore, Aquiles, the man responsible for collecting the shipment, joins the rescue efforts. Günther persuades him to offer a ride in his truck, only to realize Aquiles is part of the very network he has been sent to destroy. He kills him and disappears. The mission is completed with ruthless efficiency.

In Abra Kadabra, a touring troupe of magicians is shaken when one of its performers is found murdered. Eduardo Weismann, manager of the struggling Magic Tour 2008, desperately tries to keep the show together as suspicions, rivalries, and professional secrets threaten to tear it apart. The police investigation ultimately reveals that the murder stems from a personal crime of passion unrelated to the troupe. Yet the damage is irreversible. The company collapses, and Weismann returns to Montevideo defeated, carrying the bitter realization that the magic is gone.

Midnight Music takes place inside an apartment building where one resident is asked by neighbors Benito and Paulo to help deal with a group of young people making excessive noise. What initially appears to be a simple complaint quickly escalates into a violent confrontation. As tensions rise, it becomes clear that the conflict is not spontaneous at all but the culmination of an old grudge that finally erupts into violence.

The collection’s title story, Mototaxi, plunges into the dusty and dangerous streets of Ciudad del Este. Claudio, a Uruguayan motorcycle taxi driver, accepts what seems like a routine delivery job. Instead, he discovers he has been set up. Betrayed and used as a decoy, he narrowly escapes the police. Determined to settle the score, he tracks down and kills the man responsible before fleeing into uncertainty. At the border, he encounters a young newcomer whose naïveté reminds him of his own past—a life shaped by poverty, easy-money temptations, and constant improvisation. As he accelerates toward an unknown future, Claudio clings to the hope of finding a way out, even if he must travel through darkness to discover it.

Together, these stories create a powerful mosaic of lives colliding amid borderlands, crime, violence, and desperation.

RELEVANT INFORMATION: Rodolfo Santullo is a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, comic-book writer, and screenwriter whose works have been published in Argentina, Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Spain, Germany, and China.

Mototaxi offers strong audiovisual potential as a noir crime anthology filled with suspense, action, and morally ambiguous protagonists. Each story presents high-stakes situations, betrayals, and brutal choices, while the variety of settings—from riverboats and theatrical tours to apartment buildings and border cities—provides rich visual possibilities. The combination of crime, survival, and relentless tension makes it an ideal candidate for adaptation as a film, miniseries, or anthology television series.

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.