Director: Nimród Antal
Country of origin and year: Hungary, 2003
Language: Hungarian
Subtitles: English (USA R1)
Bonus Features subtitled?: unknown

"Kontroll," or poorly translated as "Control" for the International title (Kontroll also means Inspectors), takes us to the Budapest metro where we meet several subway conductors. Anyone who is not familiar with some of the European metro systems, there are some cities where the local subway network is established on "honour system," where there are no turnstiles, but machines where people can buy tickets. Naturally, many Budapestists take the black rider fares (riding the subway for free). The system is armed with plaincloth subway ticket inspectors who go through their daily lives battling with unscrupulous passengers. It seems like a fight in vain.

We are introduced to a "team" of inspectors who walks together, with Bulscú as their leader. This team is considered one of the worst of the inspectors, and they are assigned to a unfavourable section of the metro system. We watch them interact with strange passengers, who protests the inspectors' requests for tickets as if it was the right thing to do. We observe them chasing the mischevious young man, named Bootsie, through the metro, since he is known by the inspectors for his numerous mischiefs against the inspectors and his uncanny ability to escape from the hands of the inspectors.

At the meeting, the inspectors learn that "yet another person was pushed off the platform," and are told to keep their eyes open for the serial pusher, as he strikes very fast and randomly. During one of the routine checks, Bulscú becomes drawn towards this woman in a bear suit, and one can sense the chemistry between them. The woman in bear suit has also taken the black rider's special, yet Bulscú does nothing about it. Eventually, Bootsie is pushed off the track, which forces Bulscú to confront the serial pusher. This takes us on a runabout for Bulscú to clear his name with his bosses (since they seem to think that it was him who did it) and to renew his life up above ground.

Essentially, this film tells us three stories, with the main characters being Bulscú, the Budapest Metro and the serial pusher. All these three stories becomes interwined into this cleverly written plot, which I find to be great because life is always complex. There are so many things happening in life, yet many films ignore that and focus on one issue or premise. There are humourous situations, scary situations and also romantic situations wrapped together. Awesome! I give this filme 3 1/2 stars.