Kontrollis one of only two Hungarian-language films directed by Euro-American filmmakerNimród Antal, who would go on to make things likePredators, Vacancy,and a couple episodes ofStranger Things. The film follows Bulcsú, a traffic cop for the underground subway system and his unseemly, mish-mashed group of male coworkers, as they enforce their own brand of justice on fare-beaters and track-jumpers. They refer to their bosses as “Gestapo,” but they themselves don Nazi-esque armbands bearing the Budapest Metro insignia whenever they need to express their power.
Kontroll and the Chaos Underground
Whether this ragtag group actually has any power is up for debate, and as many feel when engaged in menial, thankless labor, the guys are desperate to retain what little power they have. They abuse and profile their ridership, who abuses and profiles them back, all of which makes for uncomfortable, sometimes unfunny comedy. And then there’s the politics, the violence, and thebureaucracy of the film. The underground is a dangerous, unpredictable place, and Bulcsú and Company are its ineffectual gatekeepers.
ButKontroll, often pigeonholed as a comic thriller, is about more than tension and chaos. Just about 100% of the film takes place underground, and the Budapest Metro is so evocative as a location (or, really, a series of locations) that thefilm is lent a dystopian, otherworldly atmosphere, becoming an almost allegorical setting. It’s a society which seems to exist independently of the world above it, and were the world to be annihilated by nuclear holocaust,Kontrollproffers that the trains would still manage to run on time.
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Antal’s film somehow occurs right at the intersection of Italian neorealism and German expressionism: it concerns the plight of the working man, while seeming to venture deep into the dark night of his soul. The lighting becomes increasingly surreal as the drama continues and as the story grows, turns more ambiguous and fantastical. Tonally speaking, the film is cooler than ice, withan electronic, steampunky soundtrackand neo-noirish overtones. It was made four years afterThe Matrix, but it almost seems like its aesthetic precursor.
The Killer and the Characters in Kontroll
The central dramatic question involves a series of train-related deaths plaguing the underground. Are they simply suicides? Or are they being carried out by an anonymous hooded figure – a Grim Reaper in a leather jacket? The protagonist Bulcsú goes about his day doing the job to the best of his ability, but occasionally catches glimpses of this mystery person, or maybe it’s just an old fare-beater who got away the last time. When Bulscú decides to take vengeance or express his power, he and his gang give chase, and the film becomes like a HungarianTrainspotting– manic, violent, and acerbically funny.
One of the film’s more realistic sections involves a psychiatrist – Bulscú and the other metro police have witnessed a horrible event and are required to participate in a psychological assessment. The film cuts in and out of different confessionals, not just with our main cast, but also secondary and tertiary characters, and, it seems, non-actors who might actually work in the underground rail system. The result is a composite portrait of collective psychosis that has gone unaddressed for far too long – it’s funny, but also sad, and one gets the sense that were it not for the traumatic thing they just witnessed, they might have never gotten to express their thoughts and feelings.
But none of these characters are actually interested in your sympathy, which is ironically part of what makes them so sympathetic. They go about their day with no complaints though they should be complaining constantly, and as is the case with so many of us, their anger and aggression are frequently directed at the wrong people.
The Aesthetics of Avoiding Your Life
Kontrollis an exercise in world-building, but one in which the world came pre-built. It is kitchen-sink realism to its very core, but its expressions of psychological subjectivity are akin to those ofthe greatest TV dramas, and its tone and visuals are reminiscent of the most stylish science-fiction and fantasy. It somehow manages to seamlessly fluctuate between realistic and hyper-stylized aesthetics, sometimes in the same scene.
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One sequence sees Bulscú encountering an old work colleague on the Metro, to whom he obscures his identity as a traffic cop – is it due to shame, embarrassment, something else? Sitting on the train with him, the colleague says Bulscú is greatly missed at the office and offers him his old job back. Bulscú gives some kind of non-committal response, with an assurance that he will think about it, but we can see in his eyes that he never plans on seeing or speaking with this man again. Why exactly? It’s not that he necessarily enjoys his current line of work (misery seems to be a large component of his daily life) so why wouldn’t he want to leave the underground if given the chance? What is he avoiding?
Heaven and Hell in Antal’s Kontroll
The underground rail system feels like a labyrinthine hell, or maybe a purgatory where people are stuck between an awful past and a future they don’t want to live in (something made explicit by the image of a woman in costumed angel wings ascending out of the underground). The way Bulscú stares with simultaneous fear and yearning for the escalators leading up to the bright sunlight of the world above suggests some self-loathing or guilt, where he doesn’t feel like he deserves to leave the underground.
Whatever the case may be, Bulscú’s reasons for staying underground might overlap with our own: the kineticism, the lack of predictability, and the rich and colorful characters underground are exciting, but perhaps only from the outside looking in. There is a deep sadness to the protagonist and some others who live inside this world, a loss or grief that is never fully explained, and in the underground, Bulscú can choose to be anonymous and unseen if he wishes. His quest to find the hooded figure is almost a grand metaphor for his struggle to accept himself and move on.
There is a dark romance toKontrolland a sense of hope that feels almost perverse with regard to the film’s downbeat presentation. Everything about the palette of this movie is keeping us down, eliminating all splotches of sunlight and clean air. And yet, director Antal brings a lightness of touch to the proceedings, and reminds us that there is much life and laughter to be found in even the darkest of places.
