AKA: Nyocker!
Country and Year: Hungary (2004)
Director: Aron Gauder
Starring: L.L. Junior, Gabor Csore, Andrea Roatis

Review By: David Austin
Rating: 3 ½ out of 4 stars (very good)

With their Region 1 DVD release of The District, new DVD company on the block Atopia have hit their first home run. The District, a raunchy animated satire of Romeo and Juliet mixed with a healthy helping of geopolitics, is witty, entertaining and presented in a unique style. Along with the recent Kontroll, The District showcases a Hungarian cinema that is emerging as a real counterweight in Eastern Europe. Watch your backs, Czechs and Poles!

The best thing about The District - a movie that has a lot going for it - is the animation. Rather than emulating the currently popular styles of rotoscoping or anime, The District utilizes a hopped-up version of South Park’s crude, intentionally two-dimensional technique mingled with motion and facial capture software. Of course, comparing the animation in The District to that of South Park is hardly fair. Unlike South Park’s minimalist world, every frame of The District drips with detail and style. The look of the film is crowded and crude (not to mention lewd), with drawings that bring to mind Ben Katchor’s pencilwork in his graphic novel The Jew of New York and older Ralph Bakshi works like Heavy Traffic. The filmmakers realize the city of Budapest beautifully, even in its seediness. Movement too is fluid, allowing for both action and dance sequences, as well as with deliberate mockery of the Dragon Ball Z style of Japanese animation.

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