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Viharsarok (Land of Storms)--BEWARE SPOILERS!
southendmd:
Hi Superpop. We have plenty of out-in-the-open threads with spoilers, as long as there's a warning.
Since this is such a rare film, I suggest changing the thread title to SPOILERS BEWARE, and we can discuss anything.
I'll go ahead and change the thread title.
I"ll also try and post some good articles. Many are only in German or Hungarian...
southendmd:
WARNING: BELOW THIS POST THERE BE SPOILERS!
superpop:
--- Quote from: southendmd on April 25, 2015, 09:25:24 am ---Hi Superpop. We have plenty of out-in-the-open threads with spoilers, as long as there's a warning.
Since this is such a rare film, I suggest changing the thread title to SPOILERS BEWARE, and we can discuss anything.
I'll go ahead and change the thread title.
I"ll also try and post some good articles. Many are only in German or Hungarian...
--- End quote ---
I wouldn't mind some articles in German or Hungarian if you found any. They are a little harder to follow when translated but still easy enough.
I will admit I did NOT see that ending coming even though it's based on a true story. I thought Áron was just going to say they couldn't be together at the end. I didn't think he would murder Szabolcs. That ending messed with me!
Also I found a reuters article that suggests Áron murdered both Szabolcs and Bernard but I think that is inaccurate...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/berlin-film-gays-idUSL5N0LG3UE20140212
southendmd:
Here's a review from CineVue:
Berlin 2014: 'Land of Storms' review
★★★☆☆
Ádám Császi's debut film Land of Storms (2014) is a tale of gay sexual awakening in rural Hungary that renders the endorphine rush of ecstasy that blooms during youthful infatuation. Told through a series of visually salient passages, Császi's confident debut provides another voice in the current collective discourse regarding gay rights in Eastern Europe. Szabo (András Sütö) plays for the youth team of a professional German football club. He spends his free time socialising with the rest of the players, partaking in late night drinking binges, communal pornography screenings and mutual masturbation sessions.
Szabo's manager sees Szabo's potential, and rides him hard, determined to get the best out of him. However, there's something about this overtly masculine environment that doesn't suit this young footballing prodigy, and after an argument with his manager over a merited red card, he decides to return to Hungary in search of a new life. Opposing his father's wishes, he moves to his Grandfather's old house in the country, determined to fix it up and keep bees. He can't do all the labour by himself and ends up hiring a young man named Arun (Ádám Varga) who he first encounters when he attempted to steal Szabo's moped. The pair are instantly compatible, and it isn't long before their true feelings begin to rise to the surface.
Császi's idyllic rural ménage trois could so easily have become a trite and sleazy drama were it not for the visually refined cinematography of the talented Marcell Rév, whose ornate imagery helps accentuate Császi's highly developed eye for framing and composition. This isn't to say that the film doesn't conform to the usual clichés and heavy-handed symbolism that have dominated this particular genre of cinema in the past. Whilst Land of Storms boasts a host of poignant and evocatively haptic imagery, the on screen relationships never quite feel fully developed, cutting all too willingly from the libidinous glance of their romance's initial gestation to the overpowering fixations that leads to their inevitable downfall.
Land of Storms is, ultimately, another film about Eastern European homophobia that, whilst pertinent to contemporary issues, ultimately feels like a story we've seen portrayed before. Even the film's subtle swipe at the paradoxical homophobia in the testosterone fuelled world of sport has been represent in Tomasz Wasilewski's clinical sophomore effort, Floating Skyscrapers (2013). Császi's confidently unchaste tale about forbidden desires in the disobliging environs of rural Hungary commendably never shies away from the sexuality at the core of its story, all the while never succumbing to gratuitous overt eroticism.
Switching from picturesque wide-angled landscape shots to tight, intimate close-ups, Császi depicts sex in an erogenous, yet guarded fashion to highlight the tenderness of these sexual encounters rather than merely depict the corporeal covetousness their lecherous glances might otherwise presuppose. Heavily emblematic and often a little heavy handed, Land of Storms may feel like a reproduction of other film's highlighting homophobia, yet thanks to Császi's direction and some nuanced performances from the film's trio of deliriously infatuated young men we're left with an intensely beautiful replica of a sadly germane issue.
http://www.cine-vue.com/2014/02/berlin-2014-land-of-storms-review.html
southendmd:
Here's a better review from Hollywood Reporter:
Land of Storms (Viharsarok): Berlin Review
11:00 AM PST 2/8/2014 by David Rooney
Land of Storms
Sebastian Urzendowsky, Andras Sueto and Adam Varga in "Land of Storms"
The Bottom Line
A sensual film with equal parts tenderness and sadness that is forthright and unsentimental in its treatment of gay self-discovery.
Venue
Berlin Film Festival (Panorama Special)
Cast
Andras Sueto, Adam Varga, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Eniko Borcsok, Lajos Otto Horvath, Uwe Lauer, Kristof Horvath, Zita Teby
Screenwriters
Adam Csaszi, Ivan Szabo
Director
Adam Csaszi
A soccer player returns from Germany to a little house on the Hungarian prairie that soon becomes a hotbed of tormented gay passion in Adam Csaszi’s captivating drama.
Hungarian director Adam Csaczi’s assured debut feature, Land of Storms, is a potently atmospheric drama of three young gay men wrestling with their sexuality in an unaccommodating environment. Unfolding mainly in lonely rural flatlands that seem to belong to a forgotten Europe, the film is emotionally and erotically charged yet free from melodrama, even when it moves inexorably toward the somewhat inevitable martyrdom of one of its characters. Driven by compelling internalized performances from its easy-on-the-eye leads, this is a steamy, stylish entry that will entice specialized gay distributors. TLA Releasing has already acquired rights for the U.S., U.K. and other territories.
Cinematographer Marcell Rev’s beautifully composed low- and high-angle opening shots establish right off the bat that the director has a fully developed visual sense. The film’s central focus is the sexual awakening of Szabolcs (Andras Sueto), a talented Hungarian soccer player on a German team, all of them first seen spread out like youthful splendor in the grass after a hard round of practice.
In brief scene fragments we see his breezy rapport with his teammates – they get tattoos together, watch straight porn, and attempt to contain their pre-match nerves before a crucial faceoff. When that clash goes badly and Szabolcs’ team leadership is criticized, a fight ensues in the showers with his closest friend, Bernard (Sebastian Urzendowsky). Disillusioned by the experience, Szabolcs skulks off to Hungary. But instead of returning home to face the disappointment of his father (Lajos Otto Horvath), who is his main reason for pursuing a soccer career, Szabolcs takes up residence in the dilapidated prairie farmhouse his grandfather left him.
When he catches hunky villager Aron (Adam Varga) trying to steal his motorbike, the chastened guy sticks around to help him fix the leaking roof. A friendship develops, with mutual attraction surfacing during a night on the schnapps. Though while Szabolcs acts on the impulse, Aron initially hides behind his drunkenness to stay outside the experience. He loosens up as barriers are broken down, but the pressure of his religious beliefs, his needy mother (Eniko Borcsok), a sometime girlfriend (Zita Teby) and the homophobic local youths fuels his conflict.
Both Szabolcs and Aron endure separate experiences of violence as word gets out about them. However, a fresh problem arrives when Bernard turns up, declaring the affections he kept concealed in Germany. The romantic triangle becomes almost idyllic for a time, infused with tenderness, but jealousy and external forces quickly intrude.
In less accomplished hands, much of this might be standard-issue gay drama dominated by angst. But while it’s not without clichés, Csaszi and co-writer Ivan Szabo lend soulfulness and seriousness to the characters, in addition to refreshingly frank treatment of their physical relationships. There’s something unexpectedly affecting about Szabolcs’ desire for a life of simplicity in which to gain fuller knowledge of himself (he even starts beekeeping), and there’s strength of character in his decision to stay there after exposing Aron to hostility, rather than escaping to someplace more accepting.
While Sueto’s taciturn but disarmingly direct character is very much the heart of the film, the three lead actors are equally persuasive. They convey a touching sense of young men learning to trust themselves and one another during an uneasy personal process. The path of Aron, in particular, is well drawn. He seems as aware as we are that if Szabolcs hadn’t turned up he might have avoided, whatever the cost, facing a part of himself that causes him shame and anger.
In addition to the naturalness of the cast, the striking settings are a key part of the film’s effectiveness. The summer storms rolling in over painterly widescreen shots of countryside that’s both gorgeous and desolate might be a little obvious as a metaphor. But this is an absorbing drama, veiled in melancholy and also laced with moments of sexy, liberating self-discovery that will stir poignant memories of youth for many gay men. It sure kept me awake and glued at an 8:30 a.m. screening.
Venue: Berlin Film Festival (Panorama Special)
Production companies: Proton Cinema, in association with I’m Film, Cafe Film, Unafilm
Cast: Andras Sueto, Adam Varga, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Eniko Borcsok, Lajos Otto Horvath, Uwe Lauer, Kristof Horvath, Zita Teby
Director: Adam Csaszi
Screenwriters: Adam Csaszi, Ivan Szabo
Producers: Eszter Gyarfas, Viktoria Petranyi
Director of photography: Marcell Rev
Production designer: Nora Takacs
Music: Csaba Kalotas
Costume designer: Klara Kalicz
Editors: Tamas Kollanyi, Julia Hack
Sales: M-Appeal
No rating, 105 minutes
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/land-storms-viharsarok-berlin-review-678597
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