"White Palms is a punishing, beautiful drama about a troubled 30-something Hungarian gymnast who gets a job as a coach training Canadian Olympic hopefuls. The film is shot and edited in an austere, quasi-documentary style reminiscent of that of films by the Dardenne brothers (The Son) and cast mainly with skilled gymnasts who perform their own routines. White Palms draws on the experiences of Mr. Hajdu, who studied gymnastics as a child, and his brother, Zoltan Miklos Hajdu, a veteran gymnast who now performs with Cirque du Soleil and who plays the movie's hero, Dongo. The sequences depicting a young Dongo and his classmates being terrorized by their coach, a brute who wields a fencing foil as if it's a riding crop and berates his charges as 'whores' are difficult to watch. But they're essential to the construction of this psychologically penetrating film about a man, still young, whose childhood was devoid of innocence." (NY Times) more at fehertenyer.hu 35mm
2006, color, 1 hour 37 minutes, Hungary