Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Edison Witt The first must-see film of the year.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Kirpianuscus the basic sin of this film could be the well known story. the virtue - the nuances of this well known story. because, against the similarities with Brockeback Mountain, the comparison with many other films about the same theme, it is a film who has its individuality. the fragile success in Germany, the links with the past, the new life and the secret who becomes obvious, the reaction of community to a fundamental sin, the symbols - the old house as one of the most powerful -, the bitter poetry are small but significant pieces who transforms an ordinary story about homophobia in a special pledge for tolerance. and this is the important thing. the silence, the relations, the victim, the image of happiness and error. so, a film who can not be reduced at the basic theme. and this is the great thing - to present, using the right tone, a forbidden love story. the rest is silence.

Geoffrey This film is about the young and handsome Hungarian lad Szabolcs who plays in a German football team. One day after a lost game and a fight with his friend Bernard he decides to go back to his home country. He inherited an old and dilapidated house and decides to renovate it. One evening a young lad, called Áron tries to steal his motorbike. He catches him but they end up being friends or some sort of "lovers" and renovate the house together. Áron is struggling heavily with his feelings…The people in the neighbourhood get to know about their relationship and start harassing both boys. I have a double feeling after seeing this movie. On the one hand it is nicely directed, the setting is lovely, the boys are quite handsome (they are even bare-chested half of the film) and the love scenes are touching, dialogues are sparse but sufficient… On the other hand this is one of the so many negative gay movies. We have seen the story over and over again. I know there are still a lot of prejudices against LGTB people in Eastern Europe and many other parts of the world, but this film has almost no positive image in it. It's mostly depressing and negative. Like the director wanted to give the message: if you are gay you will end up living or dying miserably and everyone else will hate you. Why are there so little positive LGTB films? Why is it always about homophobia, difficult coming out, one of the lovers not excepting his feelings… I would definitely not recommend this to gay people.

sinnerofcinema Szabolcs (András Sütö) plays in a German football team, as does Bernard (Sebastian Urzendowsky). A lost match and an ugly confrontation leads Szabolcs to reconsider his life. He goes back to Hungary for simplicity & to build up an inherited broke down house and to bask in his newly found solitude. He meets Aron, a local who welcomes him by stealing his motorcycle. In a odd turn of events, Szabolc hires Aron (Ádám Varga) to help him rebuild his property. A mutual attraction develops to the detriment of Szabolcs, as Aron's mother and local mates disapprove of their relationship. Violence ensues for both. A sexual friendship of the same sex attraction breeds contempt with the towns people, as Aron's dependent mother denounces her son's lifestyle to the local bullies in an attempt to "correct" his behavior. A confused yet curious Aron expresses his affection for Szabolc with a mix bag of emotions and several eruptive confrontations that will ultimately lead to a very shocking and disturbing finale.This Hungarian/German co-production may very well be reflective, and a testament of the the state of affairs and societal hostilities that still remain in place in a few rural towns within eastern Europe where the enabling, persecution & disdain for same sex couples seems to remain latent. This mentality shepherded by religious intolerance is what leads the violence and the hostile living conditions for anyone not subscribed to the few who have self appointed themselves as the enforcers of the town's moral code of conduct. Hungarian director Adam Csaczi's unveiling of the story with its sweeping cinematography, superb direction and acting is poetic, lyrical and subtly mesmerizing.

Laakbaar This is a quiet Hungarian movie about Szabi, a gay lad from rural Hungary. He befriends a guy on his soccer team in Germany (Bernard), but then gets sent home when they have a fight in the shower. Now back in his grandfather's old house in the country, he runs into Áron, a beautiful, handy young man who helps him repair the old house he's living in. One thing leads to the next, and he and Áron enter into a relationship. Áron is confused but eventually accepts his gayness. At this point Bernard shows up again, and things get complicated. He was in love with Szabi all along. Inexplicably forgetting all about gorgeous Áron, Szabi hops into bed with Bernard. However, after some awkward moments, in the end Szabi chooses local boy Áron (of course!) After seeing these beautiful young men in this idyllic setting, one wonders why everyone goes to Budapest when the action seems to be out here.The themes here are coming out, finding love and homophobia. Yes, the same themes as Brokeback Mountain. Parents and the town find out about it all, and their reactions are not positive at all, especially towards Áron. Things get ugly and violent and tragic.I thought the whole thing was very well done, and fairly interesting, although a little on the melancholy side. This is not a zippy American production. It's very much an Hungarian movie but I suspect Hungarians might cringe at this portrayal. I think it's important to remember that if the film had been set in Budapest, the story would have had a very different outcome. Rural Hungary here is a moral landscape, like Brokeback Mountain or an American small town in the 1950s.It's sometimes hard to dispel the mistaken notion that gay people lead tragic, doomed lives. Movies like this don't exactly help. However, a movie about happy gay people leading ordinary lives wouldn't be much of a movie. There wouldn't be any story or character development.At least now we understand that the tragedy befalls them not because they're gay (e.g. the sex things are shown quite positively and beautifully in this movie), but because of homophobia. This movie has that message too. It seems to be a story that filmmakers need to tell over and over again, in different settings and in different contexts. Bad things happen to gay people, yes, but it's not because they're gay. It's because they are persecuted. If Shakespeare were alive, he'd be telling the same story. It's too perfect.