Movie Review by EDF
Starring: Sandor Csanyi, Zoltan Mucsi, Sandor Badar, Csaba Pindroch, Zsolt Nagy
Director: Nimród Antal
Have you ever wondered if the underground or metro has its own society where those in charge are not quite what they seem. Where Big Brother is watching their workers very closely via the security cameras. Where a hooded stranger stalks the corridors and trains overshoot the platforms. Do you know just what actually happens in the underground maze of tunnels and platforms during and after you have used them?
Set on the Budapest underground where ticket inspectors travel around in groups – groups that are despised by those who use the underground – Bulcsú (Sandor Csanyi) is in charge of one of the crews, a man who seems to be escaping his past. The inspectors do not put on their I.D. armbands until they are on the carriage. Along the way, they meet undercover cops, pimps, vicious dogs, annoying tourists and a woman in a bear suit, as well as chasing after those who don’t pay for their tickets. Sounds like the perfect recipe for this somewhat intriguing black comedy.
Bulcsu spends all of his time on the underground, seemingly with nowhere to go after it shuts down for the night. One night, Bulcsu dreams that the bear lady shows him a newly dug tunnel. Bulcsu climbs through to the other side, only to find the hooded figure sleeping there. Bulcsu wakes up from his dream to face another day of tackling commuters who do not have tickets. But which is worse, the ticket-less commuters or the hooded stranger?
This debut movie from Hungarian director Nimrod Antal is stylistic to the point that it is grim, real and familiar. It comes as no surprise that the Budapest Transport Company insisted on a disclaimer at the start of the movie, expressing that the underground is not quite as it is reflected in the movie. I wonder if that includes the ‘love will save us’ sub-plot that runs throughout the movie. An impressive debut that deserves your attention.
