Kontroll Review

Kontroll
A ticket inspector is hiding from his past, living 24 hours a day in a fluorescent underworld where rival ticket inspector gangs beat him up, the public spit in his face and a shadowy serial killer pushes passengers onto the track.

by Alan Morrison |
Published on
Release Date:

17 Sep 2004

Running Time:

111 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Kontroll

The only people crazier than the drunks, weirdos and thugs hanging around Budapest's metro are the ticket inspectors. One of them, Bulcs· (Csenyi), is hiding from his past, living 24 hours a day in a fluorescent underworld where rival ticket inspector gangs beat him up, the public spit in his face and a shadowy serial killer pushes passengers onto the track.

Nimrod Antal's first feature is a grimy punk alternative to the big hair and leg-warmers of Luc Besson's Subway. Placing his lunatic ensemble of social misfits into a series of episodic story blocks with faultless timing, the director evocatively captures the look, mood, sounds and, most of all, the eccentric attitudes of this alien realm. Somehow he also finds time for friendship and a vein of humour that's blacker than the Northern Line.

A grimy, grungy jouney into the netherworld of Budapest that's as bizarre as it is fun.
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