Les paumes blanches

I was very impressed by this movie. The story itself as well as the atmosphere, pictures, music... As a former sportsman I recognize the gym environment with all that old equipment from 80's and the modern one in Canada as very real and realistic. After the film I read that two main actors were athletes. Knowing this before, I would expect their acting performance week, but they were great, even the small boys. I was impressed, because the theme is my personal, but from the movie-making-point of view I admired especially the cut and lights in the circus/competition scene. Thanks to the sportsmen in leading roles, I did not have to watch usual cutting when the actor starts to run - cut - stunt makes a trick, so all the scenes from the gym looked very natural. For me very balanced work in all possible aspects.

However I am afraid that the movie can better address sport or gymnastics people. I spoke with normal spectators after the film, and those stayed untouched.

What I quite liked in the movie was the way the early 1980's scenes and feeling was depicted. It gives a superb re-view of the late communist way of thinking. On values and performance in a sporty way.

One of the best scenes for me is the one when the grown up Dongo (the main character) gives a strike to a young Canadian athlete he is instructing. The Canadian parents reaction makes a strong counter point with the really socialist, inhuman reactions of the parents - his parents included - back in his childhood. Counter points are also intensified by the cool editing and the Black and whitish (young Dongo time) and todays scenes.

The only thing I would have left out or would alter is the visiting Russian circus story of the teenage Dongo. It feels a little cliché to me!

Go and see for yourself though! A cool movie for Central Europe and sports addicts.

As a Hungarian, I HATE Hungarian movies. They usually are weak in direction, plot line, acting performance. Generally speaking: cheap craps.

So that was an accident, when I clicks the remote controller and suddenly saw an outstanding performance in TV. I couldn't able to switch channel. That was so surprising, so I had to register to IMDb to tell this to you.

If you ever been in sport, or you like the emotional slow rolling movies, this movie a must see one.

(sorry for my weak English)

The white palm is a catching movie about an athlete trying to face his talent, the environment and the faults he commits. You do not have to be a sport- lover to like this movie, it is about more: about life. The only way to face your faults is to jump for the next challenge and try it again. The main figure is a Hungarian sporter, who from his childhood trains to become an athlete. We can see the way how he formed to the personality he is: the cruel trainings from childhood, the family-background, and the whole environment, a socialistic world. The story goes in different time-zones: side by side we can follow the child Dongó and his challenges, as well as the young man Dongó in Canada, training the new generation and than trying again his luck. The beginning of the movie is a bit slow, but it gets faster and it just catches you already in the middle of the movie and does not let you relax until the end. This is also interesting, as is based on a true story, the athlete plays himself in the movie. I really liked it, so I suggest you to watch it. :)

The traditions in East and West for training gymnasts have been long known but perhaps never more starkly portrayed than in White Palms.

Based on autobiographical elements involving his brother (and the film's star), Hungarian director, Szabolcs Hajdu, brings us a tale of a gold medal standard gymnast, initially training at age ten under a regime of brutal corporal punishment, then later adapting with difficulty to very different attitudes in Calgary, Canada.

As a boy, Dongo (played by athlete Zoltán Miklós Hajdu), receives little mercy in the hands of his trainer. The boys are asked to line up, but Dongo's feet are a fraction over the drill line, and he is punished with a blow from the side of a sword which leaves a blood-stained bruise on his thigh. When questioned, he tells his parents that he has thrown a knife at the girls, as they think he is lying when he claims his punishment was only for a minor incident. Parenting seems authoritarian and distant, although they don't hesitate to show his athletic skills off to relatives, and Dongo is forced to 'perform.' A background song later intones, "Summer has flown, far has it gone, over, all over, and I still question why." For Dongo and his classmates, it must seem that the joys of summer have eternally left their lives; and when he arrives late one day for practice, fearing the chastisements that will surely follow, he runs away.

In the Canadian scenes, shortcomings of the Western system are equally challenging. With little in the way of sanctions for unruly students, teachers are stretched to cope with rudeness and laziness. Through a friendship with a younger athlete, Dongo not only learns to look at the world through new eyes, but finds a part of himself that has long been abandoned.

White Palms is carefully edited to juxtapose more than one edge-of-the-seat moment. Tension is skilfully built into a story that is part documentary, part drama, and casting real gymnasts adds to the feeling of authenticity. Stark contrasts in the use of colour emphasise isolation - cold bluish tones for the scenes in Hungary are punctuated only with the bright red of the girls' outfits (in a sectioned-off area of the gym). Before going to Canada, Dongo's only venture into the latter world of brightness is when he is humiliatingly punished, providing a spectacle for the girls. The soundtrack has some haunting songs, although I felt the opening music was off-key - possibly intentionally - which I found a bit off-putting.

White Palms brings some emotion-laden content to a fairly dry subject, as well as providing useful contrasts between the former Soviet bloc and the modern Western way of thinking. It might not make the mainstream market, but is a very watchable contribution from Eastern European cinema.