The District (2004)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Touches You

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

In the poor ghetto of The District, where the opening song/montage/credit sequence reveals that everything is run by the transfer of money, drugs, and sex, a young Gypsy boy falls in love with a young white girl, and in order to self-consciously avoid turning into another Romeo and Juliet narrative, gathers together a group of kids to devise a way of making money (and thus peace???) in the district in order to win her affection and the support of her family. So his friend devises a time machine, and instead of the kids patenting the machine and making a lot of money that way, they go back in time to bury mammoths under where their street will be so that they can dig up the oil later. This action gains the attention of first the parents, then the local authorities, and then the world leaders. Yes, carnage ensues, all speckled with lovely moments of Hungarian rap music videos.The animation is interesting: live action actors' photographs were placed on hand-drawn bodies, with of course the occasional CGI for action sequences. The flat quality of the imagery added with the fact that it's so layered makes it something like a three-dimensional South Park style, which is also a good reference to the style of humor it contains: it's something like a feature-length South Park with a bit more gutter humour and, of course, Eastern European darkness.Overall, it's definitely not what one would call subtle, in reference to some of its themes, but it definitely takes its qualities from such things as video games, anime, and stuff that seems right out of Spike and Mike.--PolarisDiB

this one took me by total surprise! i'll be damned if i can recount (or follow) the plot, but i know that it involves oil, rival gangsters, public surveillance, time travel, terrorism, rebel teenagers, possibly evil horses, and an area in Budapest known as "the district." sharply written and wittily drawn, it also features cameos by a host of international luminaries, from Osama bin Laden to the pope -- George W. too! (spouting lines like: "Our agents were mislead while they were busy misleading.")decidedly un-PC and deliberately "primitive" (particularly in its animation style, recalling everything from The Adventures of Prince Achmed to South Park), this will easily appeal to gamers, hip-hoppers, and fans of Adult Swim, but should also be given a chance by any other regular film-goer/lover.watching this, i was reminded of something Ralph Bakshi said: "The art of cartooning is vulgarity. The only reason for cartooning to exist is to be on the edge. If you only take apart what they allow you to take apart, you're Disney. Cartooning is a low-class, for-the-public art, just like graffiti art and rap music. Vulgar but believable, that's the line I kept walking."my guess is, Bakshi would be plenty impressed by The District.

I watched this movie in it's original language with subtitles at the Fantasy Film Festival in Stuttgart/Germany and I enjoyed it very much indeed! This animated feature is not for the faint of heart or for people who do care about PC things ... so it's not for children either or Bush sympathizer's! But for lovers of great dark comic humor. There are so many gags hidden here, you might not get them all at your first viewing ... But unfortunately you might not get them the second time around. It's not the movies fault, it will be because you don't get all the nuances of the original (you have to speak Hungarian and maybe even have lived there to get some things ... at least that's what I've heard from other viewers, who must know ... Hungarians of course)

I red other user comments and I don't like the connections between Nyocker and any other movie made outside of east Europe. Only a "natural" born Easteuropean, can fully understand the meaning and most of the jokes in this movie. The characters represent a typical example of small criminals and citizens living in poor blocks of the city, they habits and temper. The policemen for example are corrupt so real, like in our city. I think that the animation its outstanding and has nothing to do with Southpark. Respect to the authors for hours and hours of work on this movie. Everything has been made in 3d with the use of hand-drawn textures, which is much different from the Southpark way of animation. It is original in every aspect. Faces of the characters are mix of scanned photo and sketches. They mimic its affected in such a funny way that you would laugh without understand the language and plot. The best joke in this movie, are the rap songs, which parody every musical ever made on the earth. As as Easteuropean in can only recommend this movie, because it has the purest spirit of our part of the world.