Press release

Montreal — Wednesday, December 19, 2007 — The District was unleashed at the Pioneer as the news of its screening triggered rave reviews in the New York press:

“The Hungarian cartoon feature The District is a last-minute shoo-in for the title of 2007’s most original animated film, no small triumph in a year that also included the releases of Persepolis, Ratatouille, Beowulf and Paprika.” The New-York Times

“The breathtakingly crude (and very funny) Hungarian musical cartoon, with its thoroughly un-p.c time-travel plot has already evoked comparisons to South-Park, but it also features equal dose of 8 Miles, Romeo+Juliet and The Goonies.” New York Magazine Movies

The feature animation of the Hungarian filmmaker Áron Gauder delighted its audiences when it was released three years ago in Hungary, and has enjoyed a similar success during its recent Canadian and US release. Described as “an Eastern European South Park” at the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival, The District (Nyocker!) has been rewarded with more than a dozen honours at various film festivals since 2005. Atopia is now proud to announce that the film will screen in New York from today through to December 25th, 2007 .

The Two Boots Pioneer Theater is located at: 155 East 3rd Street (between Avenues A and B) — New York, New York 212-591-0434.

A group of teens from the wrong side of Budapest’s tracks band together to make themselves rich by traveling back in time, burying a horde of wooly mammoths under the city’s streets, then returning to the present and drilling for oil. As creators of a new oil-producing nation, their scheme draws the attention of Putin (who uses the district’s Russian hookers as spies), Blair and George W Bush. In the midst of it all, star-crossed teen love is in bloom. This outrageous and visually stunning animated satire plays like an unhinged ghetto updating of Romeo & Juliet smash-filtered through a politically-charged — and politically-incorrect — kaleidoscope of clashing world views and social unrest, complete with musical numbers and a wicked soundtrack of Hungarian hip-hop. You have never seen anything like it.

News posted Wednesday, December 19, 2007.