From the Hungarian Underground

When American-born director Nimród Antal first stepped foot into the Budapest Metro, with it's labyrinth of tunnels and pipes, he felt as if he had walked on to the set of Tarkovsky's Solaris. With an impression like that, it's no wonder he chose to set his debut feature entirely in the world that exists under the streets of the Hungarian capital. Kontroll, which is being shown as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films series is a highly entertaining and often quite funny film about subway controllers -- the men and women who board trains and check that all passengers have valid tickets. It's the one job to have if you want to be hated by just about everybody. The controllers of Kontroll are a rag-tag bunch of social outcasts and misfits that are perfectly suited to this subterranean existence. Some have made the choice never to resurface, and spend their nights sleeping in empty stations. Such is the case with Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi), leader of the most ineffective crew in the network. Though he and his team of four continually confront fare-dodgers, they are entirely ineffective at issuing tickets. They are threatened with needles, beaten, spat at, offered sexual favors, or just simply ignored by the permanently stressed out Budapesters. Before the film ends, each one of them will (by one means or another) wind up a bloody mess. The film's greatest strengths are its actors and the impressive (and often claustrophobic) shots of the underground. Bulcsú and his crew might not be pleasant to look at (most of them spend a good portion of the film covered in blood, urine, foam or curry sauce) but they skillfully bring these oddball characters to life. The same can be said of the extended cast of assorted metro riders and other strange denizens that reside in Antal's fluorescent-lit world. Though one can't help but think of that other set-in-a-metro movie (Luc Besson's Subway), Kontroll manages to uniquely turn the transit system into a sort of Dantean purgatory complete with bears, angels, narcoleptics, gypsies, ravers, and mysterious hooded killers. What's odd about the film is that it feels as if it's arrived six years too late. Perhaps the Tarantino-Guy Ritchie effect has taken longer to hit Hungary, but the chase scenes (complete with seventies-sounding funk) are right out of Lock, Stock etc. That's not to say Kontroll is simply derivative -- far from it, though it doesn't quite herald the arrival of a new new-wave in Hungarian cinema. At times it seems Antal isn't sure what he wants the film to be, and the comedy-thriller mixture doesn't quite gel. While Filmbrain may not see it as the redemptive tale that some describe it as, it is a lot of fun, and though it may meander at times there are plenty of original moments that make it a worthwhile and entertaining ninety minutes. Kontroll is showing at New Directors/New Films on March 30 & 31. It opens in selected theaters on April 1.