Film Club with Yegor Sennikov — 'Kontroll' (Nimród Antal, 2003)

Film club with Yegor Sennikov: screening and discussion of the film 'Kontroll' / Kontroll (Nimród Antal, Hungary, 2003)

Plot

Bulcsu works as a ticket inspector in the Budapest metro — and seems never to leave it. By day he checks tickets, at night he sleeps on the platforms, wanders the tunnels with an equally slightly mad crew of colleagues, chases fare-dodgers and tries to figure out who is pushing passengers under the trains. The entire film is shot in and takes place in the metro. Belgrade doesn't have its own metro yet, so for an hour and a half we'll at least descend into someone else's.

'Kontroll' is a genre mix: black comedy, thriller, romantic story, workplace film and a myth of the underground realm. Neon, escalators, tunnels, absurd competitions between inspectors, sex, anxiety — and the feeling that a huge system keeps running even though no one understands where it's heading. After its release the film became one of the main Hungarian hits of the early 2000s and quickly acquired cult status.

After the screening we will talk about why this strange underground tale is also easily read as a film about post-socialist Hungary — a country that was about to "return to Europe", but on screen for some reason remained stuck underground. But above all, come to a very funny, disturbing and absolutely unusual film.

Event details

• Date and time: 13 October (Tuesday) at 19:00

• Location: Vojvode Dobrnjca 48, Belgrade