Traffic Jam is a 1979 Italian satirical comedy-drama film directed by Luigi Comencini. It was entered into the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. The film, although uncredited, is based on the 1966 short story "L'Autoroute du sud" by Julio Cortázar.

Plot

In a main thoroughfare on the outskirts of Rome, thousands of motorists are stuck in terrible traffic jam for twenty-four hours. In a stretch of road there is a variety of characters whose behaviour becomes strange. There is a selfish and hypocritical entrepreneur in a luxury car; a young hippie girl harassed and then raped by some dandies and a family from Naples on the way to Rome to abort their daughter. The day the traffic jam clears, the entrepreneur hires the girl from Naples for a record company in exchange for a sexual service. The girl is raped and then comforted by a man who wants to avenge her but then gives up. The rapists leave quietly once more.

Cast