White Palms

Hungarian writer-director Szabolcs Hajdu's fluidly told story of the rise and fall and rise of a troubled Hungarian gymnast is a sneaky delight that glides effortlessly between the past and present without a single detour into either the uplifting clichés of American sports movies or the creepy voyeurism that sometimes attends films about young, well-built athletes.

Calgary, Canada, 2001: Former gymnast Miklos Dongo (Miklos Zoltan Hajdu, the filmmaker's brother) arrives in Canada to take a coaching job at a gym owned by his friend Kelly (Jerry Gibbons). But Dongo lacks the patience for working with undisciplined youngsters, and as the product of a brutal sta...