Tony Curran and Gianni Gunduz

Tony Curran and Gianni Gunduz form a criminal partnership marked by an unequal division of power: Gianni runs the taxi company through which their business operates, but Tony is the boss. The relationship’s defining revelation comes through Bogdan, whose account connects their enterprise to the killing of his closest friend and makes clear that an order from Tony did not lessen Gianni’s responsibility—or Tony’s.

Partnership and hierarchy

Bogdan explains that Gianni, known as Turkish Gianni despite being Cypriot, ran the taxi company and did business with Tony. Tony, however, was in charge. The account establishes both the practical association between the men and its hierarchy, without specifying how long their partnership lasted or detailing the full scope of their business.

The killing behind the relationship

Bogdan’s friend, a taxi driver who had been his closest friend when he first arrived in England, witnessed Tony shoot a young boy from London. Bogdan says the incident concerned drugs, though he does not know the precise reason. The friend’s knowledge placed him in danger: Gianni killed him on Tony’s instructions. The sequence makes the partnership more than a business connection; it shows how its authority could extend from Tony’s decision to Gianni’s violence.

Bogdan’s judgment

The account surfaces during a chess game between Bogdan and Stephen. When Stephen asks whether Tony killed Bogdan’s friend, Bogdan distinguishes between the person who carried out the killing and the person who ordered it, then insists that the distinction makes no difference to him. His judgment captures the relationship’s central moral logic: Tony’s position as boss did not place him at a distance from Gianni’s act. The exchange turns a terse description of their business arrangement into an explanation of why Bogdan holds Tony responsible for the loss of his friend.