Kontroll (2003) - There Is No Such Thing As A Free Ride.

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Comedy

Szofi: [at subway vending machines] Nice place. Come here often?
Bulcsú: Only when I really want to impress a girl.

Suicide is rising in Hungary. Or is it?

Out of the labyrinthine Budapest train undergrounds come a trippy tale of love, death, and claustrophobia. A strange young man, Bulcsú (played by the attractive Sándor Csányi - which has the charm of an Eastern European version of Hugh Grant) is a part of one of Budapest' subculture of rough and edgy ticket inspectors - a rather conflicted character with more questions about himself than all of this weird but fun film combined.

Jumpers are rising in the the Budapest subway, and while the company is deputizing its ticket inspectors to be on the lookout for possible suicide attempts, work politics with rival groups as well as foreshadowings of a past life, chance encounters and minor flirtations dot the stunning film landscape of Kontroll. With new evidence that there could be a murderer in the midst as insinuated by story, I deduce that the black hooded 'pusher' is a symbolism for the Grim Reaper of the subway.

Director Nimrod Antal comes out a fusion of those Tarantinoesque wackiness such as 'railing' or racing along the train tracks and the shock-value quality of the deaths in this film, and the repeated morbidity of the signature Euro brooding films that we are accustomed to watch in the mid-'90s. Antal won the Award for the Youth in Cannes in 2004. Completing the cast of quirky characters includes a young maiden in bear suit, a narcoleptic, the old coach driver who cant seem to stop his train at the right time, a teenage miscreant who calls himself Bootsie (Bence Mátyássy) and the hordes of eccentric commuters that provides the several shades of blue and layers of weirdness that makes this film strangely engaging and comfortable. Lives, hopes and dreams intersect in the subway which reminds us that sometimes life can be a lot like the train stations, we meet different characters in the different stations of our lifetime, while sometimes we watch the world go pass us by.

The first Hungarian film to be screened in Cannes for 20 years, this piece of dark comedy, scores a 4, albeit barely. I feel that while some scenes were extended a little bit too much, cinematography is commendable. But hey, this is my first Hungarian film- and it dint disappoint, so cineastes like me should rejoice.