By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Nimród Antal
Starring: Csaba Pindroch | Eszter Balla | Sándor Badár | Sándor Csányi | Zoltán Mucsi | Zsolt Nagy
Original language title: Kontroll
Country: hungary
Year: 2005
Running time: 107
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373981/combined
Bruce says: “This is the second Hungarian film I have seen recently that shows great promise for its director. First there was the delightfully enigmatic HUKKLE directed by György Pálfi and now there is KONTROLL, a dark, comedic allegory, directed by Nimród Antal. The plots of both films, oddly enough, feature serial killing
“The entire film takes place in the Budapest subway. KONTROLL is not the first film where the Budapest subway figures prominently. In the 1939 comedy MIDNIGHT Claudette Colbert’s character, neé Eve Peabody from Kokomo, Indiana, finding herself penniless in Paris masquerades as the Hungarian Baroness Czerny. Suspecting she is a fraud John Barrymore playfully asks if the brand new subway is completed and open for business. The Baroness replies that it is almost finished ignorant of the fact that Budapest owns the honor of having the oldest subway in continental Europe. It was completed in 1896.
“When the camera first sights Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi) he is asleep on the subway floor, perhaps a bum, perhaps a crime victim,
his nose bloodied. Bulcsú is the team leader of a group that checks the Budapest subway system for riders without tickets. The subway is run on the honor system; if you intend to ride you are supposed to buy a ticket. Rival teams jockey for management’s favor and for physical superiority.
“The underground houses a strange world of slime, crime and impending evil. A serial killer is on the loose, pushing his victims in front of oncoming trains. Ticket checkers unmercifully harass passengers until they confess they have no ticket. Passengers often travel in defiant groups turning the tables by sadistically attacking the ticket checkers. At other times the ticket checker teams have violent fights with other teams. For sport some ticket checkers stage races through the tunnels after hours, flirting with death from the approaching trains behind them. What kind of hell is this?
“Is Bulcsú a ne’er-do-well, an amnesiac, or just a plain old misfit? It is not until he runs into one of his former professors
that it is revealed Bulcsú is a bright, gifted young man. How he ended up mired in the underground is never made clear. Bulcsú has a friend, Béla (Lajos Kovács) who is the engineer of one of the trains. They are genuinely fond of one another. When Bulcsú falls for a young girl dressed in a silly bear costume, he is unaware that she is Béla’s daughter.
“The underground is a testing ground for man to overcome his demons and life’s obstacles. When Bulcsú says, ‘Uncle
Béla, how do you get out of here?’ he is not asking for directions. ‘There are many ways out,’ Béla replies. Looking around, Bulcsú sees people trying to cope, not escape. One man has developed narcolepsy, another is drinking, some men resort to theft, and one tries yoga. Bulcsú is left to find a way out that meets his requirements and satisfies his needs.
“KONTROLL is filled with good ensemble acting. Sándor Csányi is exceptional. Not only a good actor, he is charismatic as well. Beaten to a pulp, he breaks into a smile and projects his handsomeness and charm, ignoring the fact that his face has been pulverized minutes before. The Budapest subway is a beautiful work of art but in Antal’s hands it is also claustrophobic, dangerous and foreboding. While violence abounds throughout KONTROLL most of it is implied, conveyed via battered faces,
bruised bodies and tough language. Antal has done a terrific job of creating a living purgatory.
“The problem I have with KONTROLL is that Antal settles for a conventional ending to an extraordinarily unconventional film. To have some of the pieces fit neatly into place is one thing; to not be sure exactly what those pieces are is another. I wanted more information to fully understand how happy the ending really was. 4 cats”