O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (2006)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Cao Hamburger

Writers:

Adriana Falcão (script collaborator)
Claudio Galperin (writer)

Release Date:

2 November 2006 (Brazil)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A boy is left alone in a Jewish neighborhood in the year of 1970, where both world cup and dictatorship happen in Brazil.

Plot Keywords:

Jewish | World Cup | 1970 | Grandfather | Brazil

Awards:

21 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

Michel Joelsas	...	Mauro
Germano Haiut	...	Shlomo
Paulo Autran	...	Mótel, Mauro's grandfather
Simone Spoladore	...	Bia - Mauro's mother
Eduardo Moreira	...	Daniel, Mauro's father
Caio Blat	...	Ítalo
Daniela Piepszyk	...	Hanna
Liliana Castro	...	Irene
Rodrigo dos Santos	...	Edgar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Felipe Hanna Braun	...	Caco
Gabriel Eric Bursztein	...	Bóris
Abrahão Farc	...	Anatol
Haim Fridman	...	Duda
Gérson	...	Himself (archive footage)
Edu Guimarães	...	Alfredo
Jairzinho	...	Himself (archive footage)
David Kullock
Sérgio Mastropasqua	...	Man #2
Pelé	...	Himself (archive footage)
Rivelino	...	Himself (archive footage)
João Saldanha	...	Himself (archive footage)
Hugueta Sendacz	...	Dona Eidel
Tostão	...	Himself (archive footage)

Also Known As:

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic material, mild language, brief suggestive content, some violence and smoking.

Runtime:

Brazil:104 min (theatrical and DVD) | Brazil:110 min | Argentina:104 min | Germany:104 min (Berlin International Film Festival)

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese | Yiddish | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:10 | Netherlands:6 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | France:Unrated | USA:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Bom Retiro, São Paulo, Brazil

Company:

Gullane Filmes

Trivia:

Brazil's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007)

Soundtrack:

Tropicália

Good, but disappointing.

"O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias" is the most important Brazilian export of 2007, and as many said, a strong contender for the Academy Awards. The movie was beautiful: the cinematography, the music, the actors. The scenery was perfectly created and it looked perfectly like São Paulo and Brazil in the 1970's. With all that, the movie still failed to excite me or create any major emotion. The movie was very flat, and ran without a climax. Plus I wasn't very familiar with the 70's history, and the fact that the movie doesn't go deeper into the issues of the time got me a bit confused. I recommend a little researching prior to watching the movie. Overall, the movie was OK, but the characterization should have been developed further and some kind of bigger conflict should have brought excitement to the movie.