A bleak picture of life down below the streets of Budapest
Viewed at the 2004 Hungarian film week in Budapest.
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Kontrol" was the feature debut of 29 year old, Nimród Antal, and picked up three awards; the Simo Sándor prize for Best First Film, a Best Cinematography award, and the foreign critics award in the name of Gene Moskowitz, long-gone but well remembered Variety critic. Moskowitz is particularly honored here because he was one of the very first American film reviewers to write extensively about Hungarian movies. "Kontrol" was also cited as the "most successful box-office Hungarian film of 2003" - so it is obviously saying something to local audiences many of whom ride the extensive and aging (one of the oldest in Europe) Budapest metro system every day. Whether it will have as much to say to average non-Hungarian filmgoers is another question, being that it is quite dark and depressing with very scruffy characters, and filmed entirely underground IN the Budapest Metro.
It must be pointed out that there has long been a kind "honor system" in effect here on public transport where one can easily get into the metro without a ticket, but if the "controllers", appearing randomly here and there, catch you there is a heavy fine to be paid. Needless to say controllers are not too popular and one thing the film is maybe trying to say is that these people are really not quite the monsters they look like in the poster for the film, but just guys down on their luck recruited to do a dirty job.
Filmed in a semi-surrealistic style with a popular actress (Eszenyi Enikó) appearing in a life-size bunny rabbit costume at regular intervals, and a mysterious platform prowler who sneaks around and tosses people onto the tracks, "Kontrol" undoubtedly has a certain kind of cinematic savvy and raw energy which indicates that director Nimrod is a comer to be watched.
This picture is a natural for the film festival circuit and will undoubtedly be turning up at festivals all over the world in the coming twelve months but it is basically too bleak and far-out for commercial distribution although it could have a chance here and there in cities with big underground systems. Sándor Csányi, Lead actor of this ensemble underground cast won a Hungarian critics prize and emerged from Kontrol. as a major new star.
