O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias

Infobox Film
name = The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
(O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias)


caption = "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" theatrical poster
director = Cao Hamburger
writer = Cao Hamburger
Adriana Falcão
Claudio Galperin
Bráulio Mantovani
Anna Muylaert
starring = Michel Joelsas
Germano Haiut
Daniela Piepszyk
Caio Blat
Liliana Castro
editing = Daniel Rezende
music = Beto Villares
producer = Cao Hamburger
Fabiano Gullane
Caio Gullane
distributor = flagicon|BRA Buena Vista International
flagicon|USA City Lights Pictures
released = flagicon|BRA November 2, 2006
runtime = 103 min.
country = Brazil
language = Portuguese
Yiddish
budget = $1,500,000 USD
amg_id = 1:392104
imdb_id = 0857355|

"The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" ( _pt. O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias) is a 2006 Brazilian drama film directed by Cao Hamburger. The screenplay, which took four years to be completed, was written by Hamburger, Adriana Falcão, Claudio Galperin, Anna Muylaert and Academy Award-nominated Bráulio Mantovani.

It was submitted by the Ministry of Culture for the 2007 Academy Awards Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. [ [http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/foreign-language-oscar-submissions1/ Twitch Film.] ] This was a surprise choice, since it was thought that José Padilha's "Elite Squad" would be submitted. Curiously, Mantovani also wrote the screenplay to "Elite Squad". [ [http://www.citylightsmedia.com/uploads/Variety%20-%20Oscar%20takes%20Brazilian%20Vacation.pdf Variety via City Lights Entertainment.] ]

Plot summary

The story takes place entirely during a few months in 1970, in the city of São Paulo. Mauro, a 12-year old boy, is suddenly deprived of the company of his young parents, Bia and Daniel Stein, who are political activists on the run from the harsh military government, which was strongly repressing leftists all over the country. Against this backdrop of fear and political persecution, the country is at the same time bursting with enthusiasm for the coming World Cup, to be held in Mexico, the first one to be transmitted live via satellite.

Unable to take care of their only child, the Steins, who live in Belo Horizonte, drive all the way to São Paulo in a blue Volkswagen Beetle to deliver the boy to his paternal grandfather, Mótel, who is a barber. To their son, they say they will travel on vacation and promise to return for the World Cup games. Unfortunately, however, the grandfather dies in the same day the boy arrives, and he is left clueless and without support in Bom Retiro, a working-class neighborhood formed mainly by Jewish people; many of them speak Yiddish, an unknown language for the kid. Since his father is Jewish, the close-knit Bom Retiro community rally for support for the boy and Shlomo, a solitary elder and religious Jew who was a close neighbor and friend of Mauro's grandfather, assumes the care and feeding of the boy.

Mauro is a football enthusiast and wants to be a goalkeeper. He gradually mixes in with the kids of the block and becomes acquainted with a number of colorful characters, including Hanna, a girl of his age; Ítalo, a politically-active student from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo; Irene, a beautiful female bartender and her boyfriend, the mulatto ace goalkeeper of one of the local football teams; the local rabbi and assorted Jewish elders, Italian immigrants, and so on. The script shows faithfully one of the interesting characteristics of working-class neighborhoods in São Paulo, which were home to lower middle class families covering the whole gamut of ethnic, racial and national origins without conflict (the director himself is of Jewish and Italian mixed origins). The plot is accompanied by original black and white footage of the great games played by Brazil in the World Cup, with goals scored by Pelé and others.

To Mauro's great disappointment, his parents neither appear as promised at the World Cup nor give any notice. Fearing the worst, Shlomo starts to investigate by himself and is arrested by the political police because of his meddling. Finally, he achieves the liberation of Mauro's mother, who is severely ill after the prison term. Her reunion with her child happens in the very same day of Brazil's final victory at the World Cup. (Mauro's father disappears while in the dictatorship's clutches, never to return.) At the end of the film, Mauro says farewell to his recent friends and playmates as he and his mother leave Bom Retiro and prepare to go into exile.

Cast

Reviews

"Variety" hailed the film as "sensitive, delicate and involving", going on to say that "Hamburger feels no need (nor is there any) to underline the obvious. He has a magician's ability to keep the story light and believable". It also notes that "the humorous central part of the screenplay is bereft of surprises". [ [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117932739&cs=1&p=0 Variety Review.] ]

The film has been picked as Brazil's submission for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (and was shortlisted alongside 9 other movies), and was released on February 8, 2008 in the USA and Canada.

Background

The semi-autobiographical character of the film (the director's parents, a couple of physicists and professors of the University of São Paulo, were briefly arrested by the military in the same year of 1970, accused of lending support to "subversives".Fact|date=October 2007 The couple's five children, including Cao Hamburger, the director, who was 8 at the time, came under the care of their grandmothers, (one Jewish and another Italian Catholic), and the sensibility and technical virtuosity by which it is directed and shot, have been factors for the film's success.Fact|date=October 2007

Awards and nominations

*Audience Award - 2006 Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival
*Best Film - 2006 São Paulo International Film Festival
*Audience Award - 2007 Lima International Film Festival, Peru
*Special Jury Award - 2006 São Paulo International Film Festival
*Best Cinematography - 2007 ABC Cinematography Award
*Best Art Direction - 2007 ABC Cinematography Award
*Best Young Performer - 2007 Young Artist Awards
*Best Editing - 2007 ABC Cinematography Award
*Best Sound - 2007 ABC Cinematography Award
*Best Screenplay - 2007 São Paulo Association of Art Critics Awards

*Golden Bear (Nominated) - 2007 Berlin International Film Festival

References

External links

* [http://www.oano.com.br/english/ Official Site (English)]
* [http://www.citylightsmedia.com/ City Lights Media]
*imdb title|id=0857355|title=The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008965-the_year_my_parents_went_on_vacation/ Rotten Tomatoes]