The year my parents were on vacation

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Movie
German title The year my parents were on vacation
Original title O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias
Country of production Brazil
original language Portuguese
Yiddish
Publishing year 2006
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Cao hamburger
script Claudio Galperin ,
Cao Hamburger,
Bráulio Mantovani ,
Anna Muylaert
production Caio Gullane ,
Fabiano Gullane ,
Cao Hamburger
music Beto Villares
camera Adriano Goldman
cut Daniel Rezende
occupation

The year my parents were on vacation is a Brazilian feature film from 2006. It was a competition entry at the Berlinale 2007 .

action

The film is set in 1970 in Brazil under the military dictatorship of General Emílio Garrastazu Médici . Mauro is a football enthusiast who can't wait for the 1970 World Cup to begin . Until then, he passes the time with table football and fantasies about the Brazilian national soccer team , which can become world champions for the third time at this World Cup. Shortly before the World Cup, Mauro and his parents have to travel headlong from his hometown of Belo Horizonte to São Paulo in their VW Beetle . Allegedly they are going on vacation and Mauro should stay with his grandfather that long. They want to be back in time for the start of the soccer World Cup.

They leave him alone in front of his grandfather's house and drive away. With a suitcase and a soccer ball, Mauro is waiting outside the door of his grandfather, who doesn't seem to be at home. After a long wait, the old neighbor Shlomo suddenly appears, and Mauro learns that his grandfather has recently died. From now on, Shlomo and the Jewish community take care of the boy. Mauro, whose father is Jewish, but who grew up irreligious, ends up in a society that not only speaks a foreign language, but whose traditions and customs are completely new to him. The old Shlomo has little understanding for the ignorant Mauro. The two get closer only slowly.

Nevertheless, Mauro quickly made friends here too. Hanna, who is the same age and lives in the same house with her mother, quickly becomes a best friend. Waiting for parents is combined with waiting for the big football event. However, the parents are not back for the Brazilians' first game as promised. The joy of his team's victory is therefore only half as great.

Through the chance acquaintance with the student Italo, who is involved in the student opposition and who knows Mauro's father, Shlomo learns more about the whereabouts of Mauro's parents, but is observed by the state security at a meeting with the students. After an arrest by the police at the university, Shlomo is also picked up for an interrogation. During the final of the soccer World Cup, Shlomo comes back home, and Mauro's mother is back too. Brazil becomes world champion and the mother takes her son into exile. But the father remains missing.

Reviews

  • Der Tagesspiegel , February 10, 2007: Brazil is world champion, in the final against Italy in Mexico in 1970, the whole country cheers and celebrates. There is only one young boy who loves soccer and wanders the streets of São Paulo alone. For him, the hour of greatest triumph is the loneliest of his life. In this oppressive parallel tour, Cao Hamburger's competition entry “O ano em que meus pais sairam de ferias” culminates. A concentrated, haunting film with its very own beautiful rhythm.
  • Berliner Morgenpost , February 10, 2007: Director Cao Hamburger has worked a lot with children. You can see that. Many suppressed feelings are reflected in Mauro's simple demeanor. Everything else we think we know about Brazil - beaches, bossa nova, lots of sun, sugar cane schnapps and easy living - has to be in another country. Not here. The colors are muted and dirty. Sao Paulo appears dreary, poor and endangered. In the end, only one parent returns from vacation. A summer dictatorship tale, bitter and tender and impressive.

Awards

The film had its world premiere on September 26, 2006 at the Festival do Rio in Rio de Janeiro and received the audience award at this festival.

2007 was the year when my parents were on holiday as the official Brazilian contribution to the nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscar -Verleihung 2008 selected although previously José Padilhas office hit Elite Squad was nominated. A jury consisting of film critics, filmmakers and journalists had the crime drama, which reports on controversial topics such as drug crime and police work in Brazil's capital Rio de Janeiro , subsequently taken out of the running, because Hamburg's film is believed to have a better chance of success. One of the reasons for this is that most of the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who judge the foreign films are over 60 years old and “don't like violence very much” , according to one jury member. The film would also have oriented itself too much on the pattern of the average American television series.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brazil not to present popular movie as candidate for Oscar nomination , Xinhua General News Service, Sep 27, 2007, 7:00 AM EST