''Transit'' is a 2005 television

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

made by

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV as 24-hour music video and entertainment pay television network officially launched on 1 August 1987 as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initia ...

and Tigerlily Films. It was the first TV movie made by

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

. It was filmed in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and shows the lives of 4 people travelling across the globe. During their journeys they think and reason about issues of life such as emotionality and sexuality.

Plot

Transit is presented in a

non-linear narrative Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern of the ...

and follows four main characters from around the world who meet in fortuitous circumstances. The film opens in

sometime in 2004, where Asha, an Americanized Indian woman, returns from her trip to

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

and is riding a taxi driving through the freeway. Six months earlier in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Tatjana, a secretary, is in an abusive relationship with Yuri, a cab driver and drug user. On impulse, she ends the relationship and proceeds to have sex with a Mexican businessman named Ruben, whom she has flirted with in her boss's office to the chagrin of her close friend, Masha. Tatjana naively believes that Ruben is the man she wants to be with, and so she ends up flying to

to follow him. Upon tracking his residence, Tatjana is dismayed when a woman holding a baby in her arms states that she is Ruben's wife after saying that she is looking for Ruben. Tatjana goes to a public park to make a call on a payphone and scream her frustrations to Ruben on the phone. Emotionally tired and exhausted from the flight and carrying her large stroller bag around the city in the heat, Tatjana loses consciousness and faints on the spot. Nearby, a man has observed Tatjana whilst enjoying a picnic with his friends. A brief flashback of two months prior reveals the man to be Jose Luis, nicknamed Champignon (

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

) or Champy for short, by his handsome yet womanizing friend, Blanco. Champy feels envy and resentment towards Blanco as he is unsuccessful in finding a girlfriend, whilst Blanco already has a relationship but finds time to enjoy infidelities with beautiful women, despite Blanco's good intentions to pair him with women during his secret trips with his mistresses in

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...

. Champy, however, has landed a job with a brewery company, and the story returns to present time to the picnic with Champy, Blanco, and the rest of their friends to celebrate Champy's new job. When Champy sees Tatjana faint after her phone call, he immediately runs to her side with his friends chasing after him. The group crowds around the unknown girl, and one of Champy's female friends suggest that he take her to his apartment to recover. In

, Asha is shown with Vip, her fiancé who is also an Americanized Indian, having lunch to celebrate an event. Asha is a film student on her way to Kenya to shoot her graduation documentary film. Her parents are conservative and traditional Indian people, and they record a heartfelt video message to Asha's uncle and aunt, whom she will be residing with once she arrives in

. On the eve before her flight, Asha stumbles upon a sex tape of Vip with one of his female Caucasian colleagues she found while preparing to follow Vip to a nightclub where he his partying with his friends. Hurt by this betrayal, she goes to the nightclub and witnesses with her very eyes that Vip is indeed not the man she knows. The couple argue outside the club and Asha terminates their engagement after it is further revealed that Vip has had more than one instance of his sexual liaisons with other women. During their fight, Champy is seen by his car packing things in the trunk. The scene then cuts to Champy and Asha in an empty

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

, with Champy writing down his contact details on his company's promotional sticky note paper and give it to Asha. In

, Asha is living with her relatives. Her documentary project comes to a temporary obstacle, with her original concept scrapped because of lack of funds from her documentary subject, and she is frustrated at having to start over and look for a new story angle. The story also introduces Matthew, a local who is into the burgeoning hip-hop culture of Nairobi.

About the film

and Tigerlily Films produced this film to air directly on television on all

MTV Networks Paramount Media Networks is the division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of its television channels and online brands. The division was originally founded as MTV Networks in 1984, named after MTV. It would be known under this ...

on 1 December, the

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immu ...

. Its goal is to make teenagers think about matters such as

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

and relationships. ''Transit'' was made as part of MTV's Staying Alive campaign, which aims to raise

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

awareness and reduce

discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...

against HIV positive individuals. The movie was partially funded by the

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (, ) is a government agency of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Sida is responsible for organization of the bulk of Sweden's official development assistance to developing coun ...

. The film is also available as a free download via the Staying Alive website. Unfortunately this was removed when MTV and the Staying Alive Foundation changed the design of their website in 2008, for the 27th World AIDS Day since the virus, HIV, that eventually leads to the development of AIDS, was discovered. The film Transit can now be found to watch on YouTube.

References

External links

Staying Alive official website containing Transit
*{{IMDb title, 0426606 2005 television films 2005 films 2005 drama films British television films MTV