Kontroll 2003

Bulcsú, Sándor Csányi is a ticket inspector on the underground; he spends his nights sleeping on the train platforms, and never leaves the subterranean world. His ragtag team of inspectors – consisting of the veteran Zoltán Mucsi as Professzor, the disheveled Sándor Badár as Lecsó, the neurotic narcoleptic Csaba Pindroch as Muki and the dimwitted greenhorn Zsolt Nagy as Tibi – is routinely disrespected and assaulted by commuters who evade paying fines in a variety of ways.

One of Bulcsú’s company rivals, model employee Gonzó Balázs Mihályfi, challenges him to a “rail run”: after the last metro leaves a station, the two leap onto the tracks and race to the next station on foot before the midnight maintenance carriage runs them over. Bulcsú wins the contest, barely saving Gonzó, who wets himself from the rush. The spectacle underscores the hazy line between discipline and chaos that anchors their daily grind.

During a routine inspection, he is enamored by a bear-suited girl named Zsófi, Eszter Balla, the daughter of veteran metro driver Béla Lajos Kovács. The encounter pulls Bulcsú toward a fragile, forbidden warmth amid a world that distrusts him at every turn, a small spark in the dim tunnels that feel like a second home to him.

On another occasion, Bulcsú tries to calm his colleague Laci, László Nádasi, after Laci loses his temper with a passenger and then takes the situation too far, ultimately slitting the passenger’s throat. The act rattles Bulcsú and casts a pall of fear over the squad, showing how close violence lives to the surface in their charged environment.

After chasing a repeat-offender prankster called Bootsie (portrayed by Bence Mátyássy), Bulcsú becomes entangled in a new threat: a hooded figure dressed identically to Bootsie who pushes people onto the tracks, feeding rumors of a string of apparent suicides. The mystery deepens as Bulcsú’s recurring nightmare of this figure mars his judgment, and he resists sharing crucial details with the lead executive of the company, György Cserhalmi, who warns of consequences if the truth fails to surface.

During an underground costume party, Bulcsú spots the hooded figure again and they engage in another daring rail run. Bulcsú manages to outrun the mysterious pursuer, but the hooded figure never resurfaces from the tracks, leaving a lingering shadow over everything that happened that night. In the end, Bulcsú encounters Zsófi again, this time as an angel, and together they emerge back to the surface, stepping into the uncertain daylight that waits above ground.

The film offers a stark, patient look at urban fatigue, loyalty under pressure, and the quiet, stubborn humanity that persists in a world built on trains, tunnels, and late-night shifts. It is a story told with a cool, observational gaze that lets the tension simmer, letting small acts of connection stand out against the vast, watching anonymity of the underground.