White Palms

The usual sports movies clichés are exploded in Hungarian writer-director Szabolcs Hajdu's White Palms, in which a gymnastics student tormented by both a sadistic coach and constant pressure from his thoughtless parents, runs away to join the circus during the last decade of Communist rule in Eastern Europe. That story is cannily intercut with a later one about that same boy Dongó—now a grown man—coming to Canada in 2001 to teach at an athletic club, where he not only becomes a trainer to a cocky young Olympic hopeful, but eventually decides to enter the competitive arena again himself, leading to a suspenseful face-off/homecoming at a world championship match in Hungary. The juxtaposition of the two story threads is skillfully handled (the climax contrasts Dongó's first circus appearance with his later tournament routine), and the performances—especially by the two young siblings who play Dongó at different ages, and the director's own brother Zoltan as the grown-up Dongó (all three actors are able athletes)—are genuinely affecting. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)