White Palms (2006)

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An athlete recalls his troubled youth while helping to coach a talented but headstrong youngster in this drama from Hungarian filmmaker Szabolcs Hajdu. Miklos Dongo (Miklos Zoltan Hajdu) is a world class gymnast who competed in the Olympics before taking on his current career as a performer with Cirque du Soleil. Miklos has been hired to help coach some contenders for the Canadian Olympic team, and finds himself working with Kyle Manjak (Kyle Shewfelt), an unusually talented young man whose mood swings make him difficult to work with. As Miklos tries to help Kyle focus his talents and come to terms with his demons, he finds himself frequently looking back on his own early career as a gymnast in Hungary -- his brutal coach Puma (Gheorghe Dinica), his domineering parents (Andor Lukats and Oana Pellea), and the grim regimen that led him to run away from home to join an acrobatics troupe. Coaching brings some of Miklos's personal issues back to the surface and he is confronted by the violent side of his nature while training Kyle. Miklos Zoltan Hajdu, who plays Miklos Dongo, is the brother of director Szabolcs Hajdu as well as an Olympic-class gymnast; he's played as a younger man by Orion Radies and Silas Radies. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi