Kontroll

Kontroll is a Dante-esque (or perhaps Kafkaesque) journey through one man's hell, symbolized by the subterranean corridors of the Budapest subway system (which I have traveled through). The entire film takes place in this underground world, and Bulcsu, the main character seems to be living down there. It is hinted that he was once a successful architect, a vocation which he has since abandoned (for unknown reasons), to become a subway controller -- a person who checks for passengers tickets. He and his motley crew play for dark humor as they fluctuate between harassing and being harassed by passengers. In their off time, they play deadly games of running through the tunnels trying to make it to the next platform before they are run over by the train behind them. Meanwhile a hooded figure (not dissimilar from the red cloaked dwarf of Don't Look Now) roams the corridors pushing people off of the platform to their deaths. The films allegory seems to be all to obvious or a bit too confused, nevertheless, as a debut film from Nimrod Antal, it seems he may be a director worth following in the future.