Hungarian filmmaker Nimród Antal takes us into a literal underworld with his funny, frightening, fantastical debut feature Kontroll, a self-assured, totally enrapturing film set in the serpentine tunnels and shadowy corners of the Budapest subway system. A reverie on disillusion and loneliness, the film stars Sándor Csányi as Bulcsú, who roams the trains with his gang of inspectors, checking passengers' tickets. And they are a gang, swaggering through the system, rumbling with "rival" inspectors, and playing Russian roulette-style games in which they race ahead of the trains through narrow tunnels--from which there's no escape--to reach the next station platform. Antal melds classic Hollywood form with a Euro art house sensibility: his Bulcsú, who never goes aboveground, is a familiar movie loner on a startlingly original journey, a man disconcerted by reminders of the world outside (such as a former work colleague who hints at a far more professional past for Bulcsú), who prefers the darkness and dankness of his underground purgatory. Somewhat like his hero, filmmaker Antal has made a virtue of the obstacles he faces--he could only film in the middle of the night, when the system was closed--lending a palpable sense of urgency to the film. Highly recommended. (M. Johanson)
Kontroll
ThinkFilm, 106 min., in Hungarian w/English subtitles, R, DVD: $29.99, Aug. 30 Volume 20, Issue 5
Kontroll
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