It's quite a trick to marry social comment to entertainment but this one works to a fare-thee-well and although Brazilians and students of South American cultural and political life in the 1970s will get more out of it there's certainly enough left for the average Joe. To nutshell it; the dictatorship is fairly harsh, so much so that one particular couple decide to take it on the Jesse Owens while they can, the fly in the ointment being their twelve year old son, Mauro. Since they can't tell anyone the truth they dump him outside the apartment of his grandfather with instructions to tell him that they have just gone on vacation and will be back in time for the final of the World Cup - in which, of course, Brazil participated that year. So far so good but what they could have but didn't foresee was that grandfather died hours before which leaves Mauro stranded in a primarily Jewish and Ialian community where he knows no one. The main thrust of the film, of course, is how a twelve year old copes with this and it is not necessary to reveal more except to say that it's a fine movie.
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writers_reign26 December 2007
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labsjoao11 October 2007"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.
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I really wanted to like this movie, but ultimately it was a disappointment.
It seems to have the ingredients: an intriguing historical background, an interesting minority, characters out of their element and the World Cup. But in the end we still had the ingredients - and no soup.
What purpose did the World Cup side-story serve? At the climax of the movie, Brazil won. Did the director want to say that ultimately, "Brazil won"? The cup could work as interesting backdrop, but it played too big a part and took us nowhere. Was this a movie about the military dictatorship of Brazil? Or the movie of an abandoned boy? Each part worked nicely, but no part seemed to contribute to another thus making all of them redundant.
Hamburger resisted the temptation to let the movie become too sentimental and avoided many clichés. On the other hand, the lack of any emotional climax left me feeling rather numb. It was too underplayed, something very rarely seen in cinema.
The little Jewish girl was excellent, and the sub-plot of her selling tickets to the changing room was entertaining. It didn't take the story anywhere, but it was entertaining. Here I believed in the scene and the people. Too many times that wasn't the case. The 4-5 (!) scenes with celebrating, dancing Jews just didn't seem realistic. The conversations between the mother and son didn't seem realistic. Too many times I was taken back to reality.
I was particularly disappointed that the excellent actor Paulo Autran didn't play a bigger role. I would have much preferred to see him play the role of Shlomo, although Haiut did a good job. Simone Spoladore was mediocre, Eduardo Moreira as the father was significantly better. Both roles were short, but crucial for the build-up of the movie.
It was nice to see relatively few familiar faces. Brazilian cinema seems to be covered by the same 10 actors in most movies. Michel Joelsas (Mauro) did well in the movie. He is credible and that carries the movie a good deal of the way.
Overall I believe that Cao Hamburger has a promising future as a director - but this movie didn't do much for me. For my Brazilian friends, however, this movie seems to be a hit. -
Benedict_Cumberbatch15 January 2008Coming of age tales seem to be old fashioned, perhaps because we've already got so many of these stories that they all seem the same. "Amarcord" (perhaps the least conventional coming of age film ever made - but what would you expect from Federico Fellini's reminiscences?), "Pelle, the Conqueror", "My Life as a Dog", "Summer of '42" and "Radio Days", just to name a few, are unforgettable films. Naturally, these stories tend to repeat old clichés, but every now and then we get a fresh and sincere coming of age film, even if it's not innovative or particularly original. "O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias" aka "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" is one of those. It's not in the same level as the gems I mentioned, but it's delicate and touching.
Brazil, 1970: military dictatorship haunts the nation, and 12 year-old Mauro (Michel Joelsas) is sent to live in São Paulo with his grandfather (Paulo Autran), when his parents go "on vacation". While he waits for his parents to come back, Mauro roots for Brazil to win the FIFA World Cup for the third time. The movie resembles two good recent flicks, "Kamchatka" (Argentina, 2002) and "The Miracle of Bern" (Germany, 2003), in the way it has dictatorship and soccer at the core of their stories. Without being a masterpiece, "O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias" is a nostalgic piece about an important time in Brazilian history. Besides, it was Paulo Autran's (one of, if not THE, greatest Brazilian actors of all time) last movie - an extra reason to check it. 8/10. -
jotix10029 March 2008The parents of young Mauro, a Brazilian Jewish couple, leave their Belo Horizonte home and go underground. They have a problem, though, they can't take their young son, Mauro, with them. That is why they decide to leave the boy with his grandfather in Sao Paolo. Little prepares Mauro for what he is going to experience in his new surroundings. It was a hard time for dissidents all over the country that opposed the dictatorship ruling the country. Many suffered because the regime had no tolerance for anyone that defied their cruelty. Many people died, or were forced, as Mauro's parents to go into hiding from the police that hunted them, or went into exile.
Mauro's grandfather had tragically passed away. Evidently no one bothered to tell his parents of the fact, so the kid is stranded, for all practical purposes. What's worse, Mauro arrives to a community of Orthodox Jewish people and he has no clue as to their ways. Shlomo, an older man, who was friends with the boy's grandfather is given custody. The two clash over the ways they see the world.
Mauro is befriended by a young girl whose mother owns a clothes store where she takes the neighborhood boys to watch while the women try things through a hole in the wall. Mauro develops a crush for Irene, the friendly waitress of a nearby bar.
As with everyone in Brazil, soccer is king. The year was 1970 when Brazil went to win the coveted World Cup. Pele, a national hero, was the guiding light that made Brazil forget for a few days the internal conflict. Even the Orthodox Jews were elated by the way their national team showed how great they were.
This film, directed by Cao Hamburger, and produced by Fernando Mirelles, has the heart in the right place. We have seen variations of this theme in other, better done films. This is not an unpleasant movie to sit through, but the plot does not make much sense at times. How can one explain Mauro's parents leaving the young boy on his own? Of course, it's a dramatic subplot, but it doesn't add up to the credibility of the story we are presented. Where the film succeeds is in the children's interactions with one another.
The acting is good throughout the film. Michel Joelsas, who plays Mauro, steals the movie with his quiet rebellious ways. Germano Haint is also effective as Shlomo, the kind man asked to look after the boy. Daniela Piepszyk is excellent as the impish Hanna. Liliana Castro is Irene, the kind waitress who is the object of Mauro's affections. -
aharmas17 February 2008Seldom does a film capture the essence of a period without sacrificing its soul. Hollywood works wonders with its budgets to recreate a long gone era, but most of those production offer empty shells, without much to care for. True, at their best, they carry a single emotion forward, and when its loud most of notice, but we leave without much emotional investment. This film stays inside your heart because it reaches deep with its message, with the purity of its storytelling, and most importantly with the powerful and yet quiet delivery of the its main performers.
Here there are no breathtaking special effects, but we keep catching our breath, as we follow the tale of a boy who must soon realize his life will never be the same. Pivotal events occur right before he must enter the traumatic stage of adolescence. There is still much wonder in his spirit, and his innocence is still pretty much in effect, as he captures the hearts and sympathy of people who barely know him. He is not a precocious youngster, only one who suddenly faces a crisis that he is not able to truly understand.
Eventually, as the film reaches its climax, his use of language demonstrates he has grown up. His silences represent a new understanding. Yet as he leaves us, we know he will always recall this special time in his life with much affection and wonder, and those qualities are so vivid throughout the movie that it is hard to dismiss this film as just another children's movie. It is heavily dependent on the very good work of two young performers, but it is ahaded with political references, with nostalgic touches of long gone eras, so we are enveloped by those powerful emotions, and yet, we know that what we are witnessing is part of our fabric and they will eventually recycle to create more stories like these. It is a very personal movie, one that should be commended by its ability to provide us with an exquisite sense of detail, with careful appreciation of the cultural forces that make a community, and the common bounds that we have in our different communities.
This just happens to be Brazil, a world that is always vibrant and admired by its contributions to world culture, a country long associated with soccer, that is now showing another facet of its multicultural fabric: a Jewish community. However, this is just another sweet element in the mix, one that serves as the background of a world that is ever changing, a world pulled apart by forces, and yet with an ability to heal and grow.
Mauro is not an observant, but he is a witness to turmoil that he doesn't understand. He is consistent and determined, never giving up on the hope he will see his parents again. There is no heartbreak, but we see how he at times needs to release his frustration and pain. There are no emotional fireworks, but great displays of how strong a common event can cross borders and ethnic differences, and for a while unite us all. Mauro shows us how a child thinks and behaves, how he is forced to understand and grow, even when he is not really ready, yet.
The movie is delicate, never loud, never too obvious in its delivery. The direction is subtle and masterful, never yelling at us, and never showing us demonic portrayals to show us the evil that exists in our world. Here is a director that can makes us appreciate the sense of loss, the beauty of transformation and growth, the agony of hopelessness, and a myriad of feelings that few movies in Hollywood can ever do.
Only one question remains: Why was this film ignored and not included in the Foreign film category? It is released early in this year, on its way to be a forgotten jewel in the world of cinema, with no chance at recognition much later because inexplicable oversight and bias is now delivering a message that unless not so subtle advertising and careful placement in the last three months of the year, a film is not worth the recognition it would otherwise deserve. It is time that the agency that so call recognizes quality in the art of cinema revamps a system that is now going stale and is truly disappointing those of us who really love good movies whenever they arrive and whatever genre and origin they might be. This film is indeed a sweet vacation from a very crowded and loud world. -
burcintuncer8 June 2008'The Year My Parents Went on Vacation' tells a turbulent period from the point of view of an innocent child. Although this is a theme very much explored by many films before, the aesthetic and narrative structure of the movie are praiseworthy. The film succeeds in giving us the littlest details about the relationships, tensions between little children and adults, adults and the old, women and men, Jews and Christians without offending the eye of the audience. What is more, it presents a spectacular visual quality and cinematography. Even though the main tension of the film is Mauro's reunion with his parents, this tension becomes partially less important in the middle of the film. The sub-tales and characters, the football conversations in particular, manage to enrich the film without rambling it. 'The Year My Parents Went on Vacation', which has comedy and drama in patches, but is never trapped in clichés and melodrama; has traces of autobiography. Just like in the film, the director Cao Hamburger's parents, academics in São Paulo College, were arrested by the soldiers in 1970. In this period, little Cao and his four siblings had to stay with their grandmothers, one of them was Jewish, and the other a Catholic Italian. The most important reason why the film is so real and earnest is maybe the proximity of it to the story of the director...
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Tubular_Bell24 November 2006The premise appears simple, but that's only on surface. Suddenly, the country is divided between the euphoria of the 1970 World Cup (in which Brazil was champion for the third time) and the anguish of the dictatorship. That could be good material for biting social critique, but the movie takes a radically different path. It follows the life of a kid, whose parents are leaving for "vacations". He's left at his grandfather's apartment, only to find out that he died hours before his arrival. Finding himself in the unnatural environment of a Jewish community, having no news about his parents and having to live with a grumpy old man, he finds comfort in football and everything that deals with it.
Fans of the hyperactivity and non-linearity of City Of God will have to expect a completely different style here. While there are flashes of comedy and quirkiness, the movie is very focused and delicately paced. There isn't a lot that can be told here, really, and I won't go on spoiling the story. Check it out for yourself, if only to witness the clashing contrast between two opposite realities in a way no history book could deliver. -
mokono15 December 2015Underwhelming, is the main word for this movie. The movie is great at what it does: shows how a boy reacts to a situation he doesn't really understand or tries to understand.
Football takes the second place in importance, as the movie goes to great lengths to show how Brazil is a country of football and how it is the boy's main escape, as it happens to boys all over.
So we get a nice show looking at a boy living with a funny old man, dedicating himself to his few hobbies (football and football) and a bit of flirting with a girl his age and a girl fit to be his mother.
What could have given this movie a sense of uniqueness is mostly glossed over with dramatic scenes with some of the secondary characters, who look at the boy as a symbol.
The movie even goes so far as to hide a critical conversation with the boy (presumably to show how he'd forget this in his shock?).
So, yea. Does its job decently. The job does not become a great movie. Easy Sunday watch, not recommendable for much else. -
O ano em que meus pais sairam de férias is Cão Hamburger's rather spectacular debút into the area of feature-length films for adult audiences.
Set mostly in the São Paulo neighborhood of Bom Retiro during the 1970 World Cup (and also, not coincidentally, during the "Iron Years" of the last Brazilian military dictatorship), the film tells the story of Mauro (Michel Joelsas), a boy from the state of Minas Gerais who is dropped off in front of the São Paulo apartment of his Jewish grandfather when his parents are forced to hide from the political police. When Mauro arrives, he finds that his grandfather has recently passed away and Mauro is left virtually alone as he waits out his parents' "vacation". In the process, the boy forms an alternative family consisting of the orthodox Jewish immigrant community of his grandfather, a group of neighborhood children including Hanna (spectacularly played by Daniela Piepszyk) and the attractive anarchist Ítalo (Caio Blat). Bom Retiro also discovers Mauro: this son of political activists is Jewish only in heritage and is much more interested in football than anything else.
Indeed, in Hamburger's world, football is the one uniting aspect of Brazilian society. From the apolitical orthodox rabbis to the black goalie on the Jewish football team to the Italians to the anti-dictatorship guerrillas, the one thing that unites everyone is the game. In a São Paulo that is usually defined by its immigrants and work ethic, everything stops for World Cup games and neighborhood matches. In this way, the film is not so much the story of youth in the dictatorship (as is the case with the Chilean Machuca and the Argentine Kamchatka) but rather a story set in that time and a circumstance created by the dictatorship. Instead, it is Hamburger's attempt to describe Brazilian society through the lens of what is, on the surface, the most unusual of Brazilian settings: one of the Jewish neighborhoods of São Paulo. In this world, people of many races, ethnicities and religions mix, united by football even as they are divided by culture. Another factor that unites them is that nearly all of the characters are not particularly tied to politics or concerned with the dictatorship. Indeed, like most people across classes, these characters are much more concerned with providing for their families and even improving their situations. Fighting the political situation becomes a sort of fringe activity that is the "luxury" of youths like Ítalo and ultimately the folly of "responsible adults" like Mauro's parents. It is not that Hamburger advocates this stance but rather that he sees the historical truth that few actively fought against the dictatorship while the great majority silently tried to ignore ituntil it invaded their own lives. As such, the film is a quiet tragedy.
Visually, the film is quite lovely thanks to the cinematography of Adriano Goldman. Shot mostly with small hand-held cameras in close quarters, the film has an intimacy and silence that is intense without being cheesy. Lit in tones of blues and greens and seamlessly edited by Daniel Rezende (Motorcycle Diaries, City of God), it is almost surprisingly well-made for such a "small" film. Finally, it is worth noting that Hamburger did an excellent job casting and working with the youthful and largely inexperienced actors. -
mustican19 April 2008Brazil in 1970. Our protagonist Mauro is left with his grandfather by his mum and dad who have to escape from the police since they are accused of being political criminals. But, unluckily, Mauro's granddad dies just before he is dropped off to his house.His father tells Mauro that they are going away on holiday and will be back by the start of the world cup. He keeps waiting for his parents in a small Jewish neighborhood in Sao Paolo. Despite being a Jew himself, he doesn't know anything about Jewish traditions and religion.He warms up with the people in the neighborhood while waiting for his parent's return. The political pressure starts affecting this little neighborhood as well although they are not interested in politics at all.
It is a little film from Brazil. My personal opinion is it was just okay. I felt sorry for Mauro for being left all alone. But he is a little tough guy that he managed to live by himself. I was a bit concerned about the characterization since I found it messy. There was no bound with Mauro and anyone in the film that can be remembered afterwards. There were people floating around Mauro but that's all. What amazed me most is that the film shows the Brazilian people's joy and their love for football. Even in the hardest times. I found the scene of socialist students watching the game Brazil against Czechs. When Czechs score they say that it is good for socialist brothers but when Brazil scores their hidden nationalism comes out and they go wild. In general, I would give it a *** out of ***** -
claudio_carvalho12 July 2007In 1970, near the World Cup, Daniel Stern (Eduardo Moreira) and his wife Miriam (Simone Spoladore) leaves Belo Horizonte in a hurry and scared with their ten years old son Mauro (Michel Joelsas) in their Volkswagen. While traveling to São Paulo, the couple explains Mauro that they will travel on vacation and will leave Mauro with his grandfather Mótel (Paulo Autran). Daniel promises to return before the first game of the Brazilian National Soccer Team in the Cup. The boy is left in Bom Retiro, a Jewish and Italian neighborhood, and waits for Mótel in front of his apartment. When the next door neighbor Shlomo (Germano Haiut) arrives, he tells the boy that Mótel had just had a heart attack and died. Alone and without knowing where his parents are, the boy is lodged by Shlomo and the Jewish community. Through the young neighbor Hanna (Daniela Piepszyk), Mauro makes new friends, cheers for the Brazilian team and sees the movement of the police and militaries on the streets while waiting for his parents.
In 1970, 90 millions of Brazilians were cheering for the National Soccer Team in the World Cup while the dictatorship had the toughest and cruelest moment against the opposition. I found this touching and sensitive movie amazing, since the director Cao Hamburger was able to brilliantly work with amateurish children and achieve outstanding performances, exposing the political situation of that milestone of Brazilian contemporary history through the eyes of a middle-class boy of ten years old. For me, it is absolutely impressive because I had approximately the same age of Mauro in 1970 and I lived that moment going to school, playing soccer and buttons, going to the beach and to the movie theater and cheering for our National Soccer Team without knowing or understanding clearly what was happening. The story is very simple and dramatic, but never corny, and the very convincing performances of the cast is awesome and touching. Michel Joelsas and Daniela Piepszyk have key roles in the story and I dare to write that two stars are born. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias, O" ("The Year When My Parents Went on Vacation") -
jaybob1 August 2008The Year My Parents went on Vacation takes place in 1970 in Sao Paolo,Brazil during the Soccor World Cup matches. We have a cute 12 year old boy whose parents left him with his elderly grandfather (who has conveniently just died), To compound this the lad is only 1/2 Jewish & is now with elderly orthodox Jews. The people are all very nice, The acting is quite good. The most exciting scenes are of the snippets we see of the Soccor matches, Everyone is a Soccor fan. If this is your idea of a fun time at the movies ,see it, I do hope you enjoy it more than I did.
NOTE its is not a bad film, just not really for me.
Ratings: **1/2 (out of 4) 77 points (out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 10) -
seneca581612 February 2007I saw this movie at the Berlinale and can't hide my disappointment. It doesn't even bear comparison with the City of God. The plot is disjointed, inconclusive, and leads into several cul-de-sacs. As another poster wrote - what kind of parents would just drop off their kid and then leave without taking him into the house? I got the feeling that the film tries to tackle too much and ends up very thinly spread. It was about the 1970 World Cup, it was about the relationship between a boy and an old Jewish man, it was about state persecution. But to my mind, only the second of these was handled in a satisfactory way. I left the cinema with so many unanswered questions in my mind.
I also didn't find the funny bits very funny - it was all a bit too predictable. And I also often had the feeling that the words of the boy were too much the words of a grown-up scriptwriter.
On the positive side I thought the acting was very solid; there were a couple of very touching moments; and the cinematography is pleasing, I especially the many shots of reflections. -
Buddy-511 December 2009Cao Hamburger's "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" is a poignant, if somewhat conventional, coming-of-age tale set in the politically charged world of early 1970s Brazil. Mauro is a soccer-obsessed 12-year-old whose Communist-leaning parents are suddenly forced to flee to some undisclosed location, leaving Mauro to stay with his paternalistic grandfather in Sao Paolo, while they're "away on vacation." Unbeknownst to the parents, however, the old man has recently died, so Mauro winds up being looked after by an elderly Jewish neighbor by the name of Shlomo, a cantankerous old codger with no interest in raising a child, let alone one he's only just met. But look after him he does, inspired by the humanistic belief that people are to take care of one another when the chips are down. Shlomo is, however, appalled to discover that Mauro, despite having a Jewish father, knows virtually nothing of the religious and cultural heritage from which he springs. Thus, Shlomo embarks on a program to re-connect the boy to his roots.
"The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" echoes earlier films like "The Two of Us," "The Revolt of Job," "Monsieur Ibrahim," etc., in which an abandoned, orphaned or wayward child is introduced to an alien culture - sometimes even his own - through the tender ministrations of an elderly caretaker. As a result, the movie doesn't always feel as fresh and original as one would like. Nevertheless, it does a nice job capturing the heartbeat and rhythm of this tight-knit community of Diasporic Jews who welcome Mauro in with open arms. The relationship between Mauro and Shlomo is painted in small, subtle strokes rather than bold melodramatic flourishes, while the sentimentality and life lessons are kept to a respectable minimum. Most touching, perhaps, is Michel Joelsas' astute portrayal of a boy left bewildered and wounded by the seeming indifference of a mother and father whose absence he has little capacity to fully comprehend. Germano Haiut is also understated and impressive as the initially cranky man who opens his heart to a lost soul - though, if the truth be told, the character lacks the complexity and depth afforded his counterparts in those previously mentioned films.
As with virtually all tales centered around a young boy's coming-of-age, the screenplay features an assortment of familiar character types and situations: the awkward first love, the doting extended family, the peephole that provides a tantalizing glimpse into the mysterious and forbidden world of adult sexuality, the local sexpot who gets all the young boys' juices flowing. And, always, the innocence and naivete of Mauro is placed in direct apposition to the social upheaval and deadly-serious nature of the politics of the times, which come to play an ever more vital role as the story moves on. -
Fernando Meirelles is the producer and Cao Hamburguer the director. Daniel Rezende (also from City of God) is the editor. But there is no violence, only sadness and sensibility in this movie. Tells the history of Mauro, a twelve years old boy that sudden has to stay by himself. Because of the dictatorship his parents lives him.It's happens in 1970, during the soccer world cup. The screenplay, written by Bráulio Mantovani (also from City of God) and other two writers and Cao Hamburguer, avoids sentimentality. With intelligent mix of the ordinary life and the heavy atmosphere, the movie offers moments of spontaneous geniality. Music and cinematography is also very good. I saw it during the São Paulo cinema Festival. It's open in Brasil in November. With the quality of the movie, for sure is going to open also in the USA.It's a movie to everybody.
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sabaisgreat17 February 2008An absolutely beautiful film. We cried and we laughed. The boy is so cute and charming, but he still acted like a man when he had to. I'm telling all my friends about this little gem of a film. The political setup is based on very real events in Brazil at the same time that the international soccer star, Pele, was given an almost godlike stature in that country. The way the filmmakers manage to weave the political story, the personal story - of a boy waiting to be reunited with his parents - and the cultural "shock" of discovering the boy's Jewish roots was outstanding and very moving for me. I think this is a little gem, a masterpiece that will be enjoyed for years to come, like a Cinema Paradiso.
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Twelve-year-old Mauro (Michel Joelsas) is a soccer fan who spends hours playing table soccer in his suburban home in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and fantasizes about playing soccer with Pelé and Tostao, the heroes of the Brazilian soccer team that is about to compete for its third World Cup title. He hardly even blinks when his parents tell him that they are going on vacation and will be dropping him off at his grandfather's apartment in Sao Paolo. Brazil's official submission for the 2008 Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation contains all the ingredients for a Hollywood-style exercise in cliché-ridden sentimentality an adorable young boy, a cantankerous but wise old man, and a world-class sports tournament. Yet director Cao Hamburger meshes these elements into a film that is nuanced, honest, and genuinely touching and, in the process, shows how an attitude of welcoming hospitality can make a difference in the lives of those who feel abandoned.
Set in Brazil in 1970 against a backdrop of military dictatorship, Mauro's father (Eduardo Moreira) and Catholic mother (Simone Spoladore) have been forced to go underground because of their political opposition to the government of General Emilio Medici, a military dictator but do not reveal to Mauro the truth about their leaving. Telling the boy that they will come back for him before the start of the World Cup Soccer Tournament, they deliver him to the home of his grandfather Motel (Paulo Autran) in the mostly Jewish Bom Retiro district of Sao Paulo but do not realize that grandpa has just died of a heart attack in his barbershop.
Tired of waiting for his grandfather to return, Mauro enlists the help of a neighbor, an aging Jewish bachelor Shlomo (Germano Haiut) who reluctantly takes him in but is not happy with his newfound task of caring for the youngster. He chastises the boy after he rejects eating herring for breakfast and slaps him across the face when he plays soccer in the hallways while wearing his prayer shawl. Shlomo becomes even more petulant when he inadvertently discovers that Mauro (whom he has been calling Moishela) is a "goy" who has not been circumcised (a very unlikely event when there is a Jewish father). It is only when the rabbi tells him that, like Moses, Mauro has been left on his doorstep by God that he begins to treat Moishela with respect and invites members of the local synagogue to offer him lunch each day at their different apartments.
Mauro's love of soccer helps him to befriend the local Jewish children, forming a bond with adorable 11-year-old Hanna (Daniela Piepsyk) and the community of Italian, Greek and Arab immigrants who are united in their devotion to the Brazilian soccer team. Joelsas is excellent as the highly intelligent energetic boy who must adapt to a strange environment far removed from his familiar surroundings. The film is almost stolen, however, by Piepsyk as the tomboyish Hanna who collects money from the boys to give them a peek at women trying on clothes in her mother's dress shop. When the World Cup begins, however, all the attention in the neighborhood is on soccer but for Mauro, it is mostly a reminder of his parents promise to return.
Spoken mostly in Yiddish, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation contains elements of The Cup, Running on Empty, and Under the Same Moon, but distinguishes itself by the freshness of its light-hearted approach and the outstanding performances of its mostly non-professional actors. Though not primarily a political coming-of-age film, when Hamburger deftly shifts from a rock n' roll dance floor to the sound of fascist soldiers on horseback making arrests of suspected dissidents, it is a jarring introduction to a young man's loss of innocence. -
Michael-7024 October 2010I was recently asked to write a recommendation for a soccer film, this was the first title that came to my mind. So, even though soccer only plays a small part of the story, it is such an important element in the DNA of the film, I had to include it.
The film is The Year My Parents Went On Vacation from Brazilian writer/director Cao Hamburger. The year mentioned in the title is 1970 and excitement is in the air as Brazil makes it to the World Cup Finals and with Pele on their team, what could possibly be wrong!
Well, lots actually.
Our protagonist is 11 year old Mauro (Michel Joelsas) who, along with his political dissident parents is on the run from the military police. In order to protect Mauro, his father arranges to leave him with his paternal Grandfather while they "go on vacation", which is a euphemism for hiding out from the authorities.
So Mauro gets dropped at the entrance of a large scary apartment building in a run down section of Sao Paulo and with a quick hug and a kiss, his parents are gone. Unbeknownst to them however, Mauro's Grandfather has just died that morning from a heart attack.
Things then go from bad to worse for Mauro as this is a very Orthodox Jewish area of Sao Paulo and most of the residents only speak Yiddish, a language that sounds like so much gibberish to young Mauro who didn't even know his father was Jewish.
Now enters Shlomo (Germano Haiut), a crabby, ill-tempered old duffer who lives in the apartment next door to Mauro's deceased grandfather and there is a great discussion among the neighbors about what to do with Mauro.
Finally, the local Rabbi decrees that since God dropped Mauro on Shlomo's doorstep, HE must know what he's doing and orders Shlomo to care for the boy until his parents return, albeit with help from the community. Talk about an odd couple!
But this is where soccer comes into play.
Because Brazil is in the World Cup Finals against Mexico, the entire country gets united behind their national team and before long everyone from Communist to Capitalist, old to young, male to female or whatever combination you can come up with manages to put aside their differences long enough to root for Pele and team Brazil.
If I have made The Year My Parents Went On Vacation sound like a Brazilian "Home Alone", I apologize; nothing could be further from the truth.
What I liked about this film was the way it managed to negotiate the growing friendship between Mauro and Shlomo without resorting to emotional tricks or false sentiment.
In fact, The Year My Parents Went On Vacation is one of the least sentimental films I have seen.
With its excellent performances, well written script, exceptional cinematography and understated, but effective music score, The Year My Parents Went On Vacation is a coming of age dramady that is light years ahead most other films in that usually overwrought genre. I can't recommend this film enough. -
MarceloGilli26 November 2006To begin with, it is unbelievable that the kid's parents didn't check if the grandfather was there! What kind of real people would drop their son in the sidewalk and leave? And now it is definitive: Brazil has officially become a branch of Hollywood, filmically speaking. Some of the worst vices of American Cinema are present in this film. Example: in a party, a song is played and the boy starts dancing, which prompts every one in the room to start dancing too, in a frenetic and contagious way. Example of stupid scene: the boy is starving, yet refuses the pie that the girl brought him -- of course, he will eat it later, he just doesn't want to show the girl that he had such lowly, shameful needs such as eating. I could go on an on... It's an empty, superficial film, with cardboard characters, clichéd situations, and no imagination or cinematic skill.
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poe42618 March 2010As euphemisms go, this one's a doozy. Too bad we don't have filmmakers of this caliber in this country. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy lightweight entertainment as much as the next couch potato, but it would be nice if one could go to the cinema just once in a great while and see something of real substance. Intimacy is International, it seems, but rarely of American origin. WHY? In a nation as multifaceted as this one, there are stories aplenty to be told (I refer anyone interested to my own autobiographical novel, PULP, in the collection THE NIGHT RIDERS, an xlibris book). Until American filmmakers can get their act(s) together, we'll just have to content ourselves with the work of foreign filmmakers- international artists whose sensibilities run to the Higher End.
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gradyharp8 August 2008O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION) is an amazing little film from Brazil written by Adriana Falcão and Claudio Galperin and directed with panache by Cao Hamberger. It tackles many important issues (political upheaval, religion, ghettos, soccer, aging and more) while telling a very tender story about a young lad forced into a change of life that builds his character and his appreciation for the global community. It works on every level.
The year is 1970, the place is São Paulo during the World Cup Soccer Games, and we meet the young Mauro (Michel Joelsas) as he is swept away from his home by his frantic parents to live in São Paulo with his grandfather: his parents tell him they are going on 'vacation' while in reality they are escaping the dictatorial 'disappearances' that challenged the Brazil of the time. The grandfather lives in the Jewish ghetto and Mauro soon discovers that his would be host has just died. He meets the adjoining neighbor, grumpy old Shlomo (Germano Haiut), who begrudgingly takes Mauro in and allows him to pursue his obsession with soccer. The story winds through the disparities of Jewish life and the governmental changes that are disrupting the flow of this important year for Brazil (there are many film clips of the famous player Pelé which add to the tenor of the story), and as Mauro makes friends with a little girl Hanna (Daniela Piepszyk) the two children are confronted with the realities of political strife and the glories of Brazil's World Cup. By keeping the narrative (in Portuguese, Yiddish and German) to a minimum the beauty of viewing the world and its incongruities through the eyes of children becomes even more touching.
This is one of those films that allows us a vantage of longstanding problems and gives us a fresh view - a factor that helps our understanding of traumas of the history and awareness of similar traumas of the present. Hamberger delivers it with tenderness and is greatly assisted by the artistic cinematography of Adriano Goldman and the musical score by Beto Villares. It is a film well worth seeing at least once! Grady Harp -
MikeyB179319 April 2010A warm-hearted and tender story about a young boy whose parents are abducted by the Brazilian Secret police in 1970. He is abruptly left with his grandfather to more or less fend for himself.
The story successfully interweaves this young boys' struggle to come to grips with being abandoned, with the World Cup, with making friends in the new neighborhood and adapting to the Jewish culture surrounding him. All this is done with a deft humanity that is often lacking in American films. The two child actors – the young boy and his new-found friend Hanna are simply superb and very real.
The story's ending is sad but does give a sense of closure. There is also a sense of humour though-out the film that gives respite to the boy's plight. -
I watched this movie not knowing anything about it beforehand and what a gem of a little movie this film turned out to be. I mean, it was a discovery about the Jewish culture at that moment in Brazilian history where coups and secret police did their best to drive out communists, left leaning Jews and any other dissidents of the current military junta rule in 1970, the year of a World Cup championship.
This is basically a coming-of-age picture, about a boy who must learn to remember that his parents are "on vacation", along with any other adults who are fleeing sudden arrests.
But it's the interaction of the main character with the other kids of his age that it really takes off. You can just feel this kid growing up, learning, assimilating into a culture he never knew he was a part of and making new friends, while learning a religion he never knew that was his heritage.
The Brazilian World Cup championship is just more added background to a full and complete storyline. I only wish that more viewers will discover this film on DVD.
I have just seen another Brazilian film a few days ago, The City of Men and I could not keep up with ALL the characters or care about them in any meaningful way. In contrast, this movie shows that in the hands of the right screenwriter and director, that is not a problem in an ensemble cast. This movie makes you care. -
p.newhouse@talk21.com3 January 2014Ten-year old Mauro Stein, of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, is bewildered because his parents are going on vacation, but can't tell him where. This is Brazil, 1970, and Mauro is left to stay with his Grandpa, Motel, in Sao Paolo. His parents are in a hurry, and so just leave Mauro outside his Grandfather's apartment building, not realising Grandfather died that morning. Shlomo, Motel's neighbour, finds Mauro outside Motel's front door. What ensues is a multi-strand story of Brazil in 1970, a Brazilian Jewish Community, and the meeting of two strangers from different cultures and generations, who must learn to accept, respect, and trust each other. Mauro doesn't know anything of his Jewish heritage, and Shlomo, a Polish Jew who is old enough to have fought in both World Wars, struggles with the idea of raising a boy who has been raised as "a Goy".
This is a beautifully written, directed, and acted film about overcoming anger, fear, and mistrust. It is embued with much of the self-deprecating humour that has allowed the Ashkenazi Jewish communities around the world to survive and achieve some level of acceptance and independence. The scene where Shlomo discovers that Mauro is "a Goy!" is very funny, but still entirely perfectly framed. In fact, this is arguably one of the most accurate intimate representations on film of an Ashkenazi Jewish community I have ever seen, particularly the way the Synagogue's Court of Elders deals with the issue of custody of Mauro, who they nickname "Moishale" - the Moses Boy.