White Palms

Miklós is a Hungarian gymnastics champion who came up as a boy under a brutal coach in the communist years. Years later he moves to Canada to start again, and finds himself passing the same cycle on to his own pupils without meaning to. In Szabolcs Hajdu’s film Miklós is played by the director’s brother Zoltán Miklós Hajdu. The spoiled rising star who will not take instruction is played by Kyle Shewfelt, who in life is the Canadian gymnast who won gold in the floor exercise at the Athens Olympics in 2004, the first medal Canada had ever taken in artistic gymnastics. Hungary submitted the film for the foreign language award at the 79th Academy Awards, but it was not shortlisted.