DVD Review: Land Of Storms

Land Of Storms tells the story of a young man who suddenly quits his soccer team in Germany and moves home to Hungary, seeming to seek solitude in his grandparents’ old house, which he has inherited. One night he encounters a man trying to steal his motorcycle, and the two develop an unlikely friendship that becomes something more, this in an area that is openly hostile to even the appearance of homosexuality. This is an excellent film, which hinges on the beautifully honest performances by András Süto as Szabolcs and Ádám Varga as Aron.

The film opens on an image of the sky, from the perspective of one lying on the ground. And we hear a soccer coach saying: “I think of nothing. My head is completely empty. I love the ball. I’m in love with the ball. It is round, like my girlfriend’s ass. There’s nothing but the ball and the goal.” And we see the coach walking among the players, who are all lying on the field, looking up at the sky – an interesting sort of meditation. And it feels perfect to begin this film with a kind of meditation, as it will soon move to another kind, and this is a film that is often intense in its quietest moments, and accomplishes so much with very little dialogue. That pattern is established almost immediately, with quiet shots of the players seated in a locker room before a game (a welcome change from the usual rowdy locker room scenes).

A fist fight in the showers between two players following the game’s loss is pretty intense. Most of it is one shot, without a cut, and it feels completely real. It is an impressive scene. Immediately following that, one of those two players, Szabolcs, suddenly leaves the team behind and travels to a old house in the countryside, which has been damaged by vandals. He seems more at peace and, surprisingly, is alone. We see him cleaning a motorcycle and discovering that the house’s roof leaks. I love all these shots without dialogue. One night a young man tries to steal the motorcycle, and Szabolcs throws him from the bike, then takes care of him, patching him up. This is also done without any dialogue mucking it up, which is remarkable. Szabolcs and Aron, the would-be thief, begin to repair the roof together. Thus they begin a strange, uneasy friendship, which of course one night develops into something more (again, without much dialogue). When Bernard (Sebastian Urzendowsky), the friend that Szabolcs fought in the shower, shows up to admit his love for Szabolcs, things get a bit more complicated.

While the performances are excellent, the film also does an exceptional job of creating a strong sense of place. There are lots of shots where the composition is dominated by the landscape, which is beautiful but also has an isolating effect. The film stays with Szabolcs and Aron long enough that when we are finally introduced to other people – Szabolcs’ father, Aron’s mother, people in the town – we consider those people to be the outsiders and even possible threats. It is almost shocking when we begin to get glimpses into Aron’s home life, for by then we feel that he almost belongs exclusively to Szabolcs and the land where the house is situated. It is somewhat unsettling to see him at home, and actually those scenes are among the film’s best, particularly the one where Aron and his mother are seated at the kitchen table. There are some intense and brutal scenes, and what I love is that these scenes are not presented in any overly dramatic way, which makes them feel all the more real. This is a film that is going to stay with me for a while.

Land Of Storms was directed by Ádám Császi, and was released on DVD on March 10, 2015 through TLA Releasing. The DVD includes the film’s trailer, but no other special features.