If you see one film about a Hungarian hitman in a wheelchair this year, make sure it’s this one. Writer-director Attila Till’s plucky comedy-drama isn’t quite the radical representation of disability it seems to think it is, but has its heart in the right place.
Non-professionals Zoltán Fenyvesi and Ádám Fekete play young men with serious mobility issues (the actors themselves are physically disabled in the exact same ways as their characters) residing in an assisted-living home. They start writing a comic book about their adventures with an older friend, Rupaszov (Szabolcs Thuróczy), a greasy-haired badass paraplegic and contract killer for a Serbian mobster (Dusán Vitanovics) who runs with a pack of rottweilers.
As far-fetched as the concept might seem, Till just about makes it work by stressing the intense physicality of the performances, especially that of veteran character actor Thuróczy who displays the upper body strength of a circus acrobat. Fenyvesi, meanwhile, has an especially soulful face and one can’t help but hope that film-makers will employ him further. The final twist is annoyingly predictable, but, otherwise, there are very few duff notes.
