Valan: Valley of Angels

Valan is one of those movies where atmosphere completely dominates over story and characters. It is very dark; the 'good' characters are all mentally unstable, and everyone else is completely neglectful at best. The shots of the raunchy cityscape, and the snow-covered mountain scenes shot from above set the vibe really well. Some of the scenes, like the one where Miklós offers a beer to the protagonist, or when the local police chief is found stone drunk in his office are hilarious, and they go really well with the atmosphere of the movie. Acting is not particularly good, and the dialogue is pretty mediocre. There is a crime story which is slowly uncovered by the lead character, but you can never really get invested in it. You know right from the start that it is going to be something very dark and pointless; I was not even interested in getting an answer to questions you would ask in a typical crime story (like who and why etc.). All in all, Valan is only slightly better than an average movie, but if you look at it as an attempt to give us an insight into the long decay of a community, it is near perfect.