A car with four prostitutes and two gangsters breaks down at a gas station in a remote location on the road to a border crossing… It might sound like it’s the lead-in to a joke with a punchline or even like a setup for a Quentin Tarantino film and Attila Gigor’s WELL certainly has its share of graphic and almost cartoonish violence, but there are a few other improbable characters in the film and each have a punchline of their own to deliver on a number of different registers. And even if it doesn’t have Tarantino’s name attached to it, the fact that it’s not in the English language is surely the only reason that this well-crafted tense Hungarian thriller isn’t entertaining the much wider audience it deserves.

WELL even opens with an old joke about the meaning of life being a well, but the punchline is clearly one that relies on the delivery. A well is an important place because it’s where you stop to refresh before you move on; a resting place that gives you the strength to get to where you’re going. It’s also a place where all kinds of restless travellers arrive and each have their own story to tell. If it’s the way you tell it that counts, Attila Gigor’s assured direction tells its story – or stories – with considerable flair. WELL is funny, sassy, sexy and suspenseful, hinting at a violent and explosive punchline right from the go and it delivers on everything it promises.

Laci isn’t sure where he is going when he arrives at the gas station. Dropped off by his mother at the station which is run by his father, a man he has never met, the young man clearly has some family issues to sort out, but he also bears a scar on his forehead that suggests that he has a past and a story of his own to tell. Laci however is more intrigued by the story the disabled pump attendant Zoli begins to relate about Chris the pit fighter dog who didn’t want to be a pit fighter, and the dog’s story does indeed seem to bear some resemblance to Laci’s own experience and give some indication where it might be heading.

What you probably aren’t expecting is a little genuine human tenderness amidst all this mayhem…

It’s going to be a while before Zoli gets to the punchline, however, because the gangsters and the sex workers have just turned up at the gas station and don’t seem to be in any hurry to fix their broken-down vehicle and move on. Zsolti, the hair-trigger psychotic gangster ferrying the cargo for his boss Johnny, is waiting on a package that is late for delivery and everyone is getting tense and just a bit nervous as the time passes. The hiatus however gives Laci time to get to know something of the story of one of the woman, and it provokes a rather dangerous flirtation that can surely lead to nothing good.

There are a few other stories in WELL that all have a part to play in how this tense situation develops. As you can imagine, it’s all going to get rather complicated when they all converge and compete for their own happy ending punchline, and director Attila Gigor lays the ground out well for the violence that is bound to ensue. What you probably aren’t expecting is a little genuine human tenderness amidst all this mayhem, but everyone needs to drink from the well and an opportunity for relflection can awaken all kinds of unexpected emotions. One thing for sure is that Zoli is going to have a new story with a cracking punchline for the next visitors to the well.

Screening on Tuesday 24th October at 22.45 at the 2017 Cambridge Film Festival

WELL TRAILER (KÚT) ENG sub. from Hungarian National Film Fund on Vimeo.