Land of Storms

Quite a well told story of a young footballer ("Szabi") who quits his team and his overbearing father to move to Hungary where his late grandfather has left him a dilapidated old house. Once he gets there, a few of the locals try to steal his motorcycle; he catches one ("Åron") and the story tells of their budding relationship as they work to restore the house (and to keep bees!) against a backdrop of traditional ignorance, intolerance and fear. The two leads deliver convincing performances for most of the film (the sex scenes don't work at all well) as they struggle to come to terms with what they want/need from each other, but the ending let's it down rather badly. Nonetheless, a much less sanitised coming-of-age story than many and well worth watching.

To me this had the potential to be a great movie, but they squandered it and instead it was a bit disappointing. Again, this is another movie that relied on long periods is silence to set a mood I guess, but they used this in the place of any real character development. Also, while it was a surprise ending, it was not a good ending, so if you like happy endings, don't watch this one!