What Is The Film "Kontroll" About?

Kontroll is a Hungarian film produced in 2003 and presented at international film festivals around the world, including at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as in Chicago and Warsaw. Directed by Antal Nimród, the entire 105 minute film takes place underground, in Budapest's metro system. It examines the dismal lives of ticket controllers, who are in charge of ensuring that all passengers have paid their fare and distributing fines to those who have not.

Kontroll's protagonist is Bulcsú, who gave up his previous well-paying, white-collar office job due to the daily stress, and became a ticket controller for Budapest's public transport agency. Bulcsú lives and works in Budapest's metro system, with a group of five ticket controllers from various social and educational backgrounds. Their depressing and mundane life, however, is punctured when a mysterious serial killer murders passengers in the metro each night.

Kontroll is part social commentary and part psychological thriller. Some ticket controllers live out their need for power, influence and stature by checking tickets and writing out fines, but in reality their search for control and respect is almost always in vain when faced with a society that does not take them seriously. Kontroll examines the psychological state of people who have lost their human dignity, as well as the fallen and weak members of society. The inability to escape from their fate and rise up is symbolized by the fact that none of the ticket controllers ever leave the metro system and thus live their entire lives underground.

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