Director Nimrod Antal's feature debut is both a simmering study of despised outcasts and an understated murder mystery that makes atmospheric use of its Budapest metro setting. It recalls the otherworld milieu of Luc Besson's Subway, but replaces its music-video visuals with some post-Communist grunge. As the leader of a crew of apathetic ticket inspectors, Sandor Csanyi is impressively intense, contemplating unexplained anxieties that are only relieved by his crush on kooky train driver's daughter Eszter Balla. A more sinister element is provided by the presence of a shadowy figure who is pushing passengers under trains. However, Antal wisely lightens the mood with some bleakly comic (if occasionally abrasive) encounters with fare-dodging passengers that allow the supporting cast to shine.

A subway enforcement officer working in the oppressively gray Budapest metro gets a chance at love — but first he needs to find out why passengers are jumping — or being pushed — to their deaths onto the tracks.