# Kontroll
**Kontroll** is a 2003 Hungarian thriller directed by Nimród Antal, set entirely in the Budapest metro system and following a team of ticket inspectors whose routine work is disturbed by a fare-dodging prankster, a rival inspection crew, and a killer who pushes passengers onto the tracks. It was Antal's first feature film and became one of the most successful Hungarian films made after the political transition of 1989.[1](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true) • [2](https://www.origo.hu/filmklub/2023/09/kontroll-antal-nimrod-elsofilmje-ami-teljes-egeszeben-a-magyar-metroban-jatszodik)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / genre | Kontroll, a Hungarian thriller blending psycho-thriller, action, comedy, and crime elements[1](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true) • [2](https://www.origo.hu/filmklub/2023/09/kontroll-antal-nimrod-elsofilmje-ami-teljes-egeszeben-a-magyar-metroban-jatszodik) |
| Director | Nimród Antal, his debut feature; screenplay by Antal and Jim Adler[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kontroll) • [4](https://hungarikum.hu/sites/default/files/ESZH_ENG_0723_cp.pdf) |
| Setting | Filmed and set entirely in the Budapest metro, the first Hungarian film to do so[1](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true) |
| Hungarian release | 20 November 2003, distributed by Budapest Film[5](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/kontroll-kontroll/movie-58807) |
| Budget and funding | About 180 million forints, including 100 million from the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation and 55 million from foreign production partners[6](https://www.vg.hu/kozelet/2003/12/szazezres-kontroll) |
| Box office | About 100,000 tickets sold in Budapest within a month of release; Hungary's biggest domestic draw of 2003[6](https://www.vg.hu/kozelet/2003/12/szazezres-kontroll) • [7](https://www.screendaily.com/control-kontroll/4018525.article) |
| Festival honors | Un Certain Regard selection and the Award of the Youth (Prix de la Jeunesse) at Cannes 2004; European Film Award nomination for best director[7](https://www.screendaily.com/control-kontroll/4018525.article) • [5](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/kontroll-kontroll/movie-58807) |
| US release | 1 April 2005 through ThinkFilm, rated R, with a US gross of $2.8 million[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kontroll) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and setting
The film takes place in the metro of an unnamed city. Its protagonists are ticket inspectors, despised by passengers, whose work is at times humiliating and at times physically dangerous. The most enigmatic of them is Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi), a man approaching thirty who abandoned a successful engineering career and fled underground, refusing to leave the metro even after his shift ends. His monotonous days are disturbed by the appearance of a charming young woman and a serial killer who hunts passengers.[1](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true)
A recurring figure is the Gyalogkakukk ("Roadrunner"), whose favorite amusement is to provoke the inspectors into chasing him through corridors, platforms, escalators, and the tracks themselves.[5](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/kontroll-kontroll/movie-58807) In one noted scene, Bulcsú and the leader of a rival inspection crew settle their differences with a race through the tunnel while the midnight express hurtles behind them; the director builds the tension without showing the run itself.[1](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true)
Antal described the metro as a symbolic world whose parallels lie in the protagonist's state of mind: the underground stands for the condition the hero is in.[8](https://magyar.film.hu/filmhu/magazinJ/mindig-a-gyomrodra-kell-hallgatni-interju-werk) The film opens with a disclaimer read by the real head of Budapest's transit company, who explains that the story is fiction and reflects universal ideas rather than the actual metro system.[9](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/kontroll)
## Production
Nimród Antal was born in Los Angeles in 1973 to Hungarian emigrants, graduated from the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest in 1995 with a directing degree, and learned the trade shooting commercials and music videos before making Kontroll.[4](https://hungarikum.hu/sites/default/files/ESZH_ENG_0723_cp.pdf) The metro idea had a long gestation: a 1997 video clip he shot in the metro for the band Warpigs is described as a preliminary study, as is a 2000 demo piece called Alagútpatkányok, and the film itself took four years to realize.[2](https://www.origo.hu/filmklub/2023/09/kontroll-antal-nimrod-elsofilmje-ami-teljes-egeszeben-a-magyar-metroban-jatszodik) His 1998 college diploma film, the 31-minute *Insurance*, had already outlined the atmosphere and story of the feature.[10](https://www.filmkultura.hu/archiv/regi/2004/articles/films/kontroll.en.html)
The production cost about 180 million forints. The Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation contributed roughly 100 million, Szerencsejáték Rt. 8 million, TV2 15 million, and foreign production partners 55 million; the city of Budapest and the transit company BKV Rt. also supported the shoot.[6](https://www.vg.hu/kozelet/2003/12/szazezres-kontroll) The crew included cinematographer Gyula Pados, editor István Király, and the band Neo, which wrote the electronic score.[5](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/kontroll-kontroll/movie-58807) Casting changed late: Lajos Bertók was long attached as the lead, but the filmmakers returned to the original conception of a man in his mid-twenties and chose Sándor Csányi, whom they judged easier for audiences to identify with.[8](https://magyar.film.hu/filmhu/magazinJ/mindig-a-gyomrodra-kell-hallgatni-interju-werk)
One improvised moment entered the film: Zsolt Nagy running into a pillar was not in the script, but Antal kept it. During that scene Nagy was injured when his fellow actor Zoltán Mucsi pulled him up by the ear after the collision, and the actor's ear had to be stitched.[1](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true)
## Reception and awards
The film premiered in Hungary on 20 November 2003 and by 19 December had sold about 100,000 tickets in Budapest alone, making it the most successful Hungarian film of the year; the distributor ran an unusually high number of prints, ten in Budapest and ten in larger provincial cities.[6](https://www.vg.hu/kozelet/2003/12/szazezres-kontroll) Screen International noted that it satisfied both the box office and the critics, a rare combination for an East European debut, and reported that The Film Sales Company took worldwide sales two days after its Cannes selection was announced.[7](https://www.screendaily.com/control-kontroll/4018525.article)
At Cannes 2004 the film screened in Un Certain Regard and won the Prix de la Jeunesse.[7](https://www.screendaily.com/control-kontroll/4018525.article) • [5](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/kontroll-kontroll/movie-58807) It was also awarded at festivals in Cottbus, Warsaw, Copenhagen, and Kyiv, and nominated for the European Film Academy's best director prize.[5](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/kontroll-kontroll/movie-58807) At the 35th Hungarian Film Week in 2004 it won the first-time director award (in memory of Sándor Simó) and best cinematography.[5](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/kontroll-kontroll/movie-58807) In the United States, released by ThinkFilm in April 2005, it earned a Metascore of 72 and an 82 percent Tomatometer score, with a US gross of $2.8 million.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kontroll) • [11](https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt0373981/criticreviews/)
## Place in Hungarian cinema and Antal's later career
Kontroll was made at a time when auteur films dominated Hungarian production and genre attempts appeared only occasionally. Antal, trained on Hollywood films and music videos, introduced a new approach, showing that spectacular action scenes, clip aesthetics, dynamic editing, and electronic music all had a place in Hungarian feature filmmaking.[1](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true) The National Film Institute's profile calls it a pioneer in the history of modern Hungarian genre film.[1](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true)
The film opened Antal's international path. He introduced himself to American audiences in 2007 with the thriller *Vacancy*, followed by *Armoured*, the science-fiction film *Predators*, and a 3D concert film with [Metallica](https://www.edgepedia.org/metallica); his 2017 crime story *The Whiskey Bandit* (A Viszkis) became one of the most watched Hungarian films made after 1990.[4](https://hungarikum.hu/sites/default/files/ESZH_ENG_0723_cp.pdf) In 2013, film commissioner Andy G. Vajna brought him back to Hungary to direct a promotional short encouraging domestic audiences to watch Hungarian films, ten years after Kontroll's international breakthrough.[12](https://www.filmneweurope.com/news/hungary-news/item/107000-hungary-campaigns-to-build-domestic-audiences)
## References
1. [Kontroll, National Film Institute Hungary](https://nfi.hu/alapfilmek-1/alapfilmek-filmek/jatekfilm/kontroll2.html?accessibility=true)
2. [Egy ország röhögött és szánakozott a BKV-ellenőrökön, Origo (2023)](https://www.origo.hu/filmklub/2023/09/kontroll-antal-nimrod-elsofilmje-ami-teljes-egeszeben-a-magyar-metroban-jatszodik)
3. [Control (2003), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kontroll)
4. [Nimród Antal, American-Hungarian Film Director, Hungarikum](https://hungarikum.hu/sites/default/files/ESZH_ENG_0723_cp.pdf)
5. [Kontroll, Port.hu film database](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/kontroll-kontroll/movie-58807)
6. [Százezres Kontroll, Világgazdaság (2003)](https://www.vg.hu/kozelet/2003/12/szazezres-kontroll)
7. [Control (Kontroll) review, Screen Daily (2004)](https://www.screendaily.com/control-kontroll/4018525.article)
8. ["Mindig a gyomrodra kell hallgatni" interview with Nimród Antal, filmhu (2003)](https://magyar.film.hu/filmhu/magazinJ/mindig-a-gyomrodra-kell-hallgatni-interju-werk)
9. [Kontroll, Screen Slate (2025)](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/kontroll)
10. [Nimród Antal: Control (Kontroll), Filmkultura (2004)](https://www.filmkultura.hu/archiv/regi/2004/articles/films/kontroll.en.html)
11. [Kontroll critic reviews, Metacritic via IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt0373981/criticreviews/)
12. [Hungary Campaigns to Build Domestic Audiences, FilmNewEurope (2013)](https://www.filmneweurope.com/news/hungary-news/item/107000-hungary-campaigns-to-build-domestic-audiences)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1998 to 2024*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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