The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

Ano em que meus pais sairam de ferias

Director: Cao Hamburger
Brazil 2007 103 mins
Language: Portuguese/Yiddish with English subtitles
Cast: Selected as Brazil's official entry to the 2008 Academy Awards

When twelve-year-old Mauro's parents need to go on the run because of their involvement in resisting the repressive 1970s Brazilian government, they drop him off at the home of his orthodox Jewish grandfather in Sao Paolo. The neighbourhood and its denizens are mostly a mystery to the lovable boy, whose own lack of Jewish upbringing is much commented upon by his grandfather's taciturn neighbour Shlomo, who takes him in. Thus begins a strange number of months, filled with Mauro's awakening political consciousness and immersion in the Jewish culture of Sao Paolo's Bom Retiro district. Last but not least is the World Cup mania that sweeps up all of Brazil and almost makes that country's citizens forget that they are in the sixth year of a brutal military dictatorship. Mauro is befriended by the neighborhood kids and also by the grown up student Italo, a political activist. When Italo seeks refuge from the police, Mauro and Shlomo risk the precarious position of the Jewish community by taking sides in Cao Hamburger's first rate drama.

Event / Themes: Family Matters Galas Latin American Drama Reel Radical Jews