Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply Perfect

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

So, I've recently seen this movie, and have very mixed feelings about it. It's like 2 different movies, and as such, has its ups and downs.Long story short: it is the story of Dongó (Zoltán Miklós, Hajdú), a Hungarian gymnast, whose career had been broken in two, due to a childhood accident. 19 years later, he starts to rebuild his life in Canada, where he becomes a trainer, but the shadows of his past still haunt him. He commits physical abuse against a child under his care, and almost expelled from the gym club for that. His only chance to redeem himself is to take care of, and train Kyle, a promising, but utterly stubborn and rebelling teenager gymnast, the country's greatest hope for the next Olympic games. The story's last quarter takes place at a world championship in Hungary, where we simultaneously learn the happenings of the past, which led to giving up the protagonist's career, and how he looses the championship, but finding some moral remedy for himself. In the closing scene we see Dongó as a member of the world-famous Cirque du Soleil.Let's start with the good one. Parts, taking place in the 80's are phenomenal. The stories of young Dongó (Orion Radies) are full of with throat-gripping scenes about childhood abuse, parents forcing their child to fulfill the parents' dream, the physical and psychical breaking of the gymnasts so they can be the best of the best. Even more appalling (and aggravating), how the parents assisted to the abuse (especially rough scene the one with the whipped boy, whose father, a state intelligence agency's member sat down and watched the whole thing, like nothing happened). These scenes are clearly from the childhood memories from the writer/director (Szabolcs Hajdu). Acting is superb, Puma, the trainer (Gheorghe Dinica), though not as frightful, as, for example, Fletcher in Whiplash, still delivers the character greatly.And now, the low parts. The story-line in the 2000's is nowhere near as well-made, as the first half of the movie. The whole situation feels overly made-up, and you cannot escape the feeling, that they just connected 2, completely independent story-lines, just to make the movie longer. Kyle's character and motivation are hardly fleshed out. Drives behind adult Dongó's actions are also poorly portrayed, and though Hajdu (the writer and director's brother) physically suits for the role, his acting is nothing to write home about. The same can be said about the Canadian gym club leader, who looks a bit fake and exaggerated. The ending is also somewhat confusing, but acceptable. The movie itself is also a bit hypocrite. Upon the commitment of physical abuse, the club leader scolds Dongó, that this is completely not OK. As if abuse (physical and psychical) was a thing of the past. However, abuse remains even today, in almost every branch of the competitive sport. Now, the main drive is not the national (or personal) pride, but the money of the sponsors, and still, the expectations of the parents.Even though, I would like to praise the movie for letting the people know about the harsh and unforgiving regime of the world of the professional sport - or at least a tiny slice of it. It helps you to realize, how many broken childhood, mentally and emotionally disfigured juvenile men and women are behind the medals of the Olympic and world championships. And it successfully convinced me to encourage my children to do sports, but keep them the hell away from the professional sport, if I want to grow mentally healthy adults out of them.

White Palms, (Fehér Tenyér) Hungary, 2006. Viewed in Budapest at the annual Magyar Film Week, (Magyar Film Szemle) February, 2006.Having suffered as a boy under a brutal Communist-era coach, champion Hungarian gymnast Miklos moves to Canada years later in search of a new start - only to find himself unwittingly perpetuating the very same cycle of abuse among his own pupils. "White Palms" helmed by Szabolc HAJDU is possibly the only feature film ever made whose central subject is the specialized athletic domain of Gymnastics. It follows the life of a talented young gymnast in the city of Debrecen who rebels against his sadistic coach in Communist Hungary, runs off to a Russian circus where he suffers a very bad injury, emigrates to Canada where he himself becomes a leading gymnastics coach, then, years later, returns to Debrecen for one last shot as a performer in international competition, whereupon, having proved his mettle once and for all against his arch Canadian rival– goes back and joins a famous Canadian circus! — (Le Cirque du Soleil). The gymnastics scenes, which take up a goodly portion of the total screen time, are especially realistic as both the director and his brother Zoltan Miklos Hajdu, who plays the hero, Dongo, at maturity, are highly trained gymnasts! Nothing like making a picture about an occupation you know something about… The title refers to the chalk gymnasts dust their palms with when approaching the high bar to get a better grip. The gyrations on the bars are breathtaking but what really gives this film its unusual punch is the parallel study of the art and mentality of the career gymnast woven into a strong critique of the Communust system that paralyzed Hungary for four decades. Fascinating film, one of a kind. The festival closer "Taxidermia" a study in the gymnastics of regurgitation made enough people in Hungary puke this year to convince the critics that it was the "Best Film of the Year" – different shucks for different folks. All things considered, however, 2006 was not a bad year at all for the steadily reviving Hungarian cinema and White Palms is one if the best of the new breed.

Hungarian director Szabolcs Tajdu's new film White Palms has its moments of excellence in a fairly uninteresting account of the life and career of a national gymnast named Miklos Dongo. Dongo is trained under a brutal and authoritative coach when he was very young. His life is changed when he suffers a serious non-sport related injury. He signs up to be a coach many years later and is forced to train Kyle Manjak, a young Canadian gymnast whose talent is immense but is lacking in discipline. Should he lash out on his student with the same brutality shown by his coach? Or should he stick to a softer approach? In the end, he decides to set an example by training rigorously together with Kyle and qualify themselves for the World Gymnastics Competition.Tajdu presents White Palms as two narrative threads of different timelines with the central focus on the character of Dongo. The present thread shows Dongo and Kyle together as coach and trainee respectively, and as opponents in competition. The 'flashback' thread shows the anguish and misery suffered by Dongo when he was under his diabolical coach. Both threads run back-and-forth with each other and it is difficult to see what the director wants to achieve. Only crossing the hour mark does White Palms become thematically clearer. The two threads eventually converge into a rousing climax of slow-motion, balletic images that suggest the fickle psychological state of Dongo, whose past comes back to haunt him.White Palms concludes in an inferential manner that is slightly odd. More questions will be asked than answers given out by the time the end credits roll. It tries to explain the psyche of Dongo by further revealing his character's actions. Some may see it as a proper closure for the film's lead character, but it is done half-heartedly that it loses most of its impact. White Palms is not quite consistent in terms of entertainment; it is sometimes resonant, sometimes a yawn. Yet it emphasizes rather successfully the importance of bonding in our lives and the courage to defend our dignity whenever threatened.SCORE: 7/10 (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved!

I loved this movie and it was the best one I saw at the Toronto International Film festival. I appreciate the effort and detail at capturing the child abuse and then conveying it to the audience. Especially the scene where young Dongo goes home to visit his parents at Christmas time and the parents ask him how the marks got on his body. After failing them to believe that he didn't do anything wrong and was hit for no reason, he makes up a story about throwing a knife and then they believe him. I just couldn't get over the closeness I felt with the main character. This movie is great for audiences of all ages especially for anyone who needs that nudge to believe that they are alright just the way they are.