Banana Skin Waltz

Never miss a satire if you'd like to have a wider view of the 60's or 70's (and maybe the 80's) Eastern Europe. Both the regime and behavior of people are pilloried, with many-many hints that show deeper details of the correlation of the two. And the creators didn't miss to have some words about the West and it's part of this history. But don't sit down to see the film if you'd like to have a light funny evening movie, 'cause that will lash up your feelings alright. The director is that same Peter Bacso, who directed the legendary satire 'A tanu' (The witness) which deals with the same historical era, the same relations between politics and the people, just from a little different point of view.

The story follows our protagonist (with no name, played by Miklós Galla), who loses his season ticket on the bus. The quest for said item is filled with bizarre encounters with retarded cabbies, cannibalistic station guards, trigger happy busdrivers, kinky buses, a homicidal maniac running amok…

Underrated in light of its current (February 4, 2007) IMDb score of 6.4, this film reminded me of what Joseph Heller's 'Something Happened' could look like if a film was to be made out of it. Our middle-aged character's life is in a fragile balance at the start and soon that balance will, of course, be disturbed. Even without much in the way of drama at first, an at times nightmarish reality intermingles with nightmares, and, typically for a movie from this region, state bureaucracy and the absurdities of a semi-legal order play a role in moving developments along. So what is it that awaits our hero down the informal road he is officially sent? Complete deconstruction? Or the 'unbearable lightness of being'? If you give the movie the time to unfold, it will reward you revealing an entertaining concept by the end.

On a single day the fate of three couples are joined and some of them sealed.

Interviews with 3 people who had near death experiences.