directed by Attila Galambos, drama/thriller, 107 min, eng subtitles
"You act strange," girlfriend wannabe Edit (Judit Rezes) tells 37-year-old coroner Tibor Malkav (Zsolt Anger). And with that pronounced twitch near his left eye and bald pate, at first blush Tibor looks like a ticking time bomb. When he agrees to carry out a murder-for-hire to finance his mother's cancer treatments, he sets in motion a strange set of events that test his unflappable nature. Perhaps unsurprisingly, first-time director Attila Gigor has expressed a fondness for Lawrence Block novels and Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead; cleverly plotted and drolly played, The Investigator has all the intricacies of the former and the gallows humor of the latter. Winner of the international critics' prize at the Warsaw festival and a slew of Hungarian Film Week awards—including best screenplay, actor and editing—The Investigator is one of the most ambitious and accessible of the new crop of Hungarian films. (Eddie Cockrell)
Awards:
Hungarian Film Week 2008 (Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Editing, Moziverzum Prize)
IFF Bratislava 2008 (Best Actor)
IFF Warsaw (FIPRESCI Prize)