JCVD JCVD
Sep
13
2005

TIFF Report: Nyócker! (The District) Review

Posted by Kurt Halfyard at 11:46pm.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Musical, Cult, Animation, Continental Europe & Russia, Toronto Film Festival 2005.

nyocker_tiff.jpg

According to the producer of Nyocker!, theirs is the first feature length animated film out of Hungary since 1986. This unusual little film is a fusion of the visual styles of South Park, Angela Anaconda and Appleseed. The animation is amazingly rich in detail and is simply gorgeous. The film is kinetic, ambitious and stylish. (All for less than half a million dollars...are you listening Hollywood?) It takes Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliette and turns it on its side, then guts it from the inside out. Pimp/Gang/Thug culture, Hungarian Hip-Hop musical numbers and over-the-top satire on machismo, racism, and global politics are a sampling of the chewy bits on this films overflowing plate. In other words, it was worth the wait.

Nyócker! follows the children of two rival gangs in a poverty stricken and multi-ethnic urban district in Hungary. Ricsi Lakatos, teenaged son of the districts Gypsy gang-boss, is in love with Julika Csorba, daughter of the Hungarian gang-boss. After getting some Scarface inspired advice from his crotchety grandfather (You gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women), Ricsi decides that is the way to win his true love. He gathers all of the children of both gangs together and comes up with a brilliant get-rich quick scheme:

Step 1: Invent Time Machine
Step 2: Go back to Prehistoric Times
Step 3: Kill as many Mammoths as possible and bury the corpses under the district
Step 4: Back to present, drill oil wells
Step 5: Get into the world Oil Market and make Billions

The plan goes surprisingly well, aided in no small part by the genius physics student in their class. Having learned about Romeo and Juliet in School, Ricsi realizes that he doesn’t want his and Julika’s lives to end up in, well…tragedy. He wisely turns the oil-business over to both sets of parents on the condition that they bury their differences, work together, allow his courtship of Julika and of course the kids get to skim 20% off the top. As the district gets rich, President Bush and the rest of the world leaders don’t appreciate a new player in the oil business, and nuclear war is now on the horizon.

Nyocker! is unconventional animated feature. It is certainly made for adults, as the language is quite raunchy, and nudity abounds (violence is curiously light, though). It is aggressively political, both in its anti-American-foreign-policy and using the pixellation-blur effect to hide the faces of the Hungarian politicians, essentially casting them as criminals (much in the same way as Fox TVs COPS!). Director Áron Gauder is not afraid to cast President Bush, the Pope, Vladimir Putin and Osama Bin Laden in small supporting roles. And what struck me as the oddest creative choice, Nyocker! actually plays the story straight most of the time. I may be wrong on this, as some of the humour may be lost in translation, but I think despite the ludicrous time-travel elements, and wacky police-surveillance sub-plot, it playis the various characters more or less seriously.

While it does get a bit slow in parts and you have to read very, very fast to keep up with the subtitles for all the rap-lyrics and dialogue, Nyocker! is well worth a look for those who love a good cult-animated film. I am certainly in anticipation of Gauder’s sequel to the film (which was confirmed in the Q&A at the Midnight Screening), and I’ll be keeping my eye out for a subtitled version of the TV series that Nyocker! is based on.

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Reader Comments

  1. Todd Brown 09/14/2005 @ 8:04pm

    I’ve started my own review of this three or four times now and I keep giving up because Kurt’s already said it all ... really stunning visually, fantastic soundtrack, satire’s solid and I was also a little surprised how seriously it plays a lot of the stuff ... I’ll definitely be picking this one up on DVD ...

  2. Norddeth 09/15/2005 @ 6:51am

    LOL

    I didn’t stay for the Q&A, but in the beggining Colin gave Props to Twitch for bringing this film to his attention.

    WOOT TODD!

    nord

  3. x 09/15/2005 @ 5:11pm

    mmmhh… looks yummy. That pic over here sold me already.

  4. a.tom.x 01/03/2006 @ 5:53am

    I like the movie very much. Is the DVD and soundtrack already available? I tried to serach Hungarian web to find one, but it is quite hard work to understand the language smile

  5. poland 02/08/2006 @ 11:04am

    anyone knows where i can find the english subtitles for this movie?? thanks

  6. poland 02/09/2006 @ 7:59am

    up up ^^ subs needed !!

  7. Adrienn 03/18/2006 @ 9:25am

    Poland,

    Can you find already english subtitle for the nyócker? I would also need one, but till now I didn’t find it.

    Thanks

  8. agustin 03/30/2006 @ 7:22pm

    please, any subs out there !?

  9. mamalu 05/17/2006 @ 6:25am

    no eng subs yet??

  10. mic 09/18/2006 @ 7:26am

    there’s no english or any other subtitles on the net?

  11. yesyesyes 09/21/2006 @ 11:11pm

    Whats happened with the UK dvd release? I read it was supposed to be beginnning of this year

  12. Kurt 09/22/2006 @ 9:12am

    Kloofy.net does not have any english subs listed for Nyocker! unfortunately.

    Not sure on the UK DVD, but there is this website selling a Hungarian version of Nyocker! which indicates English subs

    PrimaDVD

    Distrikt

    (District / Nyócker)

    Distrikt

    Režie:Áron Gauder

    Délka:90 minut

    Kategorie:Animovaný

    Rok:2004

    Země:Maďarsko

    Zvuk:Audio Dolby Digital 5.1: česky, anglicky, maďarsky Titulky: české

    Bonus:Interaktivní menu; Přímá volba scén; N/A

    přidat do košíku

    Běžná cena:419 Kč / 570 Sk

    Naše cena:375 Kč / 510 Sk (navíc ke každému nákupu dárek)

  13. Kurt 09/22/2006 @ 9:14am

    One thing I should have mentioned...just because a website lists english subs, doesn’t necessarily mean their info is correct. This happens in Japan occassionally I believe, not sure for Hungary...so fair warning..

  14. Sagaris 04/21/2007 @ 11:16am

    if anybody has Nyocker sutitle in english, pls send it to me at [removed]
    //<![CDATA[
    var l=new Array();
    l[0]=’>’;l[1]=’a’;l[2]=’/’;l[3]=’<’;l[4]=’ 109’;l[5]=’ 111’;l[6]=’ 99’;l[7]=’ 46’;l[8]=’ 108’;l[9]=’ 105’;l[10]=’ 97’;l[11]=’ 109’;l[12]=’ 103’;l[13]=’ 64’;l[14]=’ 99’;l[15]=’ 97’;l[16]=’ 101’;l[17]=’ 103’;l[18]=’ 117’;l[19]=’ 98’;l[20]=’ 110’;l[21]=’ 97’;l[22]=’ 102’;l[23]=’ 101’;l[24]=’ 116’;l[25]=’ 115’;l[26]=’>’;l[27]=’“‘;l[28]=’ 109’;l[29]=’ 111’;l[30]=’ 99’;l[31]=’ 46’;l[32]=’ 108’;l[33]=’ 105’;l[34]=’ 97’;l[35]=’ 109’;l[36]=’ 103’;l[37]=’ 64’;l[38]=’ 99’;l[39]=’ 97’;l[40]=’ 101’;l[41]=’ 103’;l[42]=’ 117’;l[43]=’ 98’;l[44]=’ 110’;l[45]=’ 97’;l[46]=’ 102’;l[47]=’ 101’;l[48]=’ 116’;l[49]=’ 115’;l[50]=’:’;l[51]=’o’;l[52]=’t’;l[53]=’l’;l[54]=’i’;l[55]=’a’;l[56]=’m’;l[57]=’“‘;l[58]=’=’;l[59]=’f’;l[60]=’e’;l[61]=’r’;l[62]=’h’;l[63]=’a ‘;l[64]=’<’;
    for (var i = l.length-1; i >= 0; i=i-1){
    if (l.substring(0, 1) == ‘ ‘) [removed]("&#"+unescape(l.substring(1))+";");
    else [removed](unescape(l));
    }
    //]]>
    [removed] . many many thanks
    -----

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