‘Kix’: Transilvania Review

Dirs/scr: David Mikulan, Balint Revesz. Hungary/France/Croatia. 2024. 92mins

A child’s journey from boy to man is vividly captured in Kix, a coming of age documentary in which free-wheeling exuberance fades to an increasing sense of foreboding. Shot over more than ten years, the film provides an immersion in an individual life that also speaks to the changing tides in his native Hungary. Winning the What’s Up Doc? award at Transilvania is the latest peak in a successful festival run that should only continue to expand. 

As fascinating as any drama in the way that it finds the bigger picture in a single life

The title Kix may be associated with ‘kicks’ or ‘fasz’, the Hungarian word for ‘dicks’; a favourite graffiti tag of the film’s young protahonist. The film starts as 21 year-old film student and aspiring filmmaker David Mikulan hurtles through the streets of Budapest on his skateboard. Wielding a handheld camera, he captures a blurry, whiplash portrait of overhead conversations and snippets of lives glimpsed in passing. He meets Sanyi, an 8 year-old scamp with a missing front tooth who seems to spend his life on the streets. Sanyi is a fearless, latter-day Artful Dodger with a belief that “I can do anything I want”. He is a thrill-seeking, mischief-maker who recognises no boundaries and will try anything; from repeatedly thumping a football against a church door and spray painting walls to destroying the bedding of a homeless person.

Sanyi is an unruly spirit; he describes himself as an angel at school but nowhere else. Adopting a gruff, deep voice, he creates a superhero alter ego who provides some running commentary on his ambition to become ”the toughest guy in the city”. We see the sweet and the troubling sides of Sanyi and his endearing energy, wit and ease with the camera. He grows to trust Mikulan and almost sees him as a substitute father figure. Mikulan never judges and offers constant encouragement.

The documentary does stray into problematic territory, as you wonder if Sanyi is playing to the camera or influenced by his starring role. Mikulan and co-director Balint Revesz also provide us with the context that makes him more sympathetic. Sanyi lives with his parents, grandmother and older brother Victor in a tiny, dank-looking flat straight from the pages of Dickens or Zola. A visit from the Child Protection Office is a constant threat. His mother Moni works three jobs to keep the family together.

Just as you wonder what the future might hold for Sanyi, the camera fades to black. The rough, handheld quality of the first third is abandoned for a more polished, sometimes more poetic filmmaking technique. The Sanyi we meet now is a skinny, floppy-haired 12 year-old trying to build muscles and find a girlfriend. The family household now includes his young sister Timi. He still has dreams of what his future might hold and hangs out with bad influence friends. Life seems the same but has subtly changed, and the rebellious behaviour indulged in a child can have much more serious consequences as Sanyi progresses through his teenage years to the cusp of adulthood.

Inevitably, there is an echo of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood (2014) as we next follow Sanyi into adult responsibilities and the outlines of a life he hopes to attain. Throughout all of this, there is the shadow of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, his desire to make the country great again and some of the legislation he introduces down the years. Kix is as fascinating as any drama in the way that it finds the bigger picture in a single life.