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KONTROLL Send This Review to a Friend
Fresh from the New Directors/New Films series of the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Hungarian import “Kontroll” is a drama that takes place entirely in the Budapest subway. It’s a slick piece of work by writer-director Nimród Antal, who has constructed a story combining romance, metaphor and a bit of mystery, all playing out underground. New York subway riders should feel kinship with the setting.
Antal’s script focuses on the inspectors who have the nasty job of catching fare beaters. Their work makes them an unpopular lot as best. Sándor Csányi, a good-looking actor under the scruffy exterior of his character Bulcsú, gives a performance that helps keep the film absorbing. Bulcsú makes his home in the subway system. He is mysterious for doing so, and he has attained the status of a leader of one of the inspection teams that carry out the unsavory work.
By burying himself in his place of work as well as the job itself, Bulcsú becomes a metaphor for the inability of some to cope with life and therefore avoid the real world. Staying underground, he escapes the pitfalls. Will he one day choose to surface?
He has found a subway adversary, a mysterious figure who pushes people in front of trains and manages to keep from getting caught. There’s a youth who Bulcsú also chases whenever he turns up. In addition, there is bad blood between Bulcsú and one of the subway inspectors.
Hope enters in the form of a pretty, ethereal young woman, Sofie, played by Eszter Balla, who captivates Bulcsú and gives him a reason to change his life. But first he must survive an encounter with the mysterious killer.
This is Antal’s first feature and, although the film spins on a bit too long, he seems remarkably in control of “Kontroll.” A THINKFilm release.
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