The Hungarian Iron Lady – Katinka Review

The many victories of Katinka Hosszú are still spectacular, but even this fact was not able to save Norbert Pálinkás’s “almost-documentary”. “Katinka” is a sometimes heroic, but empty and unnecessary celebration of Hungary’s most successful female swimmer.

The name of Katinka Hosszú is well-known, even by those who are uninterested in sports. The 33-year-old swimmer became one of the most famous figures in Hungary’s history of sports, due to her 3 Olympic and many World and European Champion gold medals. It’s no surprise at all, that the National Film Institute of Hungary wanted to capture Hosszú’s career in the most expensive Hungarian documentary feature so far. The result is a somewhat aimless, 103 minutes long image film, in which Katinka Hosszú, hiding any signs of weakness, tells her otherwise amazing story.

Katinka’s early ambitions and her introduction to swimming is shown through archive footage recorded by her family and at her schools, and by the end of the movie, we get to see all of her most important defeats and victories over the years on several sport events. Her incredible performance was already impressive on TV screens, and she does a great job at reflecting on her memories as a beginner. Her marriage and long-running coach-athlete relationship with Shane Tusup is quite bravely explored, even if we only see old footage about their days spent with training.

However, imperfections in directing frequently emerge, when Hosszú’s personal life is in focus – these scenes often wander off, making their importance and presence questionable in the documentary. It’s worth mentioning, that the filming of “Katinka” was more difficult because of the COVID pandemic, but even considering that, sometimes it feels like the creators had no idea on how to fill up the remaining runtime.

While the film is trying to decide whether it’s a documentary or a promotional video, its tempo and story arc fall apart so irreparably, that even the selected moments from legendary competitions cannot hide it. Given its image film features, the movie looks great, and paired with skillful editing, it’s even able to generate a sort of energy that manages to capture Hungarian audiences for a short time. Sadly, the feeling doesn’t last long, since every honest moment is followed by three artificial ones, and neither the family’s, nor the friends’ presence cannot show Katinka Hosszú as a real and vulnerable woman in this movie.

The achievements of Katinka Hosszú are indisputable, her past is adventurous, and yet, the movie fails to uncover who she really is. The film tells her story superficially, failing to show her as a person instead of a brand. Whether this is the performance of the director or the producer, could be debated for a long time, not to mention the necessity of shooting an autobiography about a currently active athlete, while closing her story with thoughts about retirement. Whatever the case is, many of the issues with “Katinka” are amateur, which inevitably gets magnified in such a costly documentary.