CENTRAL DO BRAZIL/ CENTRAL STATION


Brazil ,1998, 113 minutes Colour.
Fernanda Montenegro, Marilia Pera, Vinicius de Oliveira.
Directed by Walter Salles.

Central Station is an acclaimed and award-winning film from one of Brazil’s most distinguished and popular directors, Walter Salles.

It is the story of a little boy lost, searching for his mother, who comes across a letter writer at the Central Station in Brazil. Fernanda Montenegro plays the letter writer, an elderly woman who takes dictation is able to help illiterate people to communicate.

When she tries to help the little boy, it means that she has to make a decision and actually leave with him and travel into the countryside, to a village when he searches out his mother.

While the Central Station is featured and shows a big cross-section of citizens, it is out in the countryside, in the different villages and stops along the way, when we see an interesting group of people, friendly, hostile, problems, and the pious and religious aspects of their lives..

The journey is important for the little boy and his search for his mother, but it is also important from for the older woman in taking stock of her own life and values.

The film won the Ecumenical Award of the Berlin Film Festival in 1998.

1. Acclaim for this film? Worldwide? The many awards?

2. The work of the director, his perceptions on Brazil and Latin America?

3. The atmosphere of the station, its environment? The cities of Brazil and their large populations? The massing people? Life at the station? Transport, shops? A setting for a small personal drama?

4. The station in the city, the trains coming and going, home for people, the streets? The Brazilian countryside, the range of landscapes, the desert and the mountains, the towns, dry? Shops, villages and settlements? The shrines and the celebrations? The film giving an atmosphere of Brazil?

5. The musical score, the variety of themes, the religious overtones?

6. The tradition of Brazilian films about children, the streets, thieves? Pixote? Children and adults? Exploitation? The behaviour of the young boys around the station?

7. The film as a road movie, the atmosphere of naturalism? Real? Audiences sharing the journey?

8. The station, the physical aspects of the station, the people and their stories?

9. Dora, her age, experience, a touch of bitterness? Her writing the letters? The range of people who asked her to write for them, her reaction, despising them? Not sending the letters?

10. Josue, his age, bond with his mother, the absent father? Coming with his mother to the station? The letters? His mother’s death? His situation, the pathos?

11. Dora, Irene, the house, the discussions? Going through the letters?

12. Dora and her reaction to Josue and his mother’s death? Bonding with the boy? Deceiving him? The wealthy family and their procuring him? Her reflection, changing her mind? The sandwich, following, clashes in the arguments, her taking him home?

13. The options for Josue, the streets, searching for his father, adoption?

14. Dora, the contact, Irene and her reaction? The television? Irene’s reaction?

15. The decision to travel, to find Josue’s father? The bus trip? The terrain, the variety of Brazil?

16. Josue and Dora, communication, change in attitude, the sharing, the difficulties, the needs?

17. Arriving in the village, the religious background? The pilgrims, the shrine, images and music, the nature of Christianity, devotion, superstition, music, statuary, folk religion?

18. Josue and finding his relations, stories of what had happened, the brothers, helping and not helping, their characters? A story of his mother? Of his father?

19. Searching the town, the truth about Dora and her letters? Possibilities for finding the father? The information about what had happened in the city, Josue’s father and his mother, the disappearance of the father? The letter?

20. Money being stolen, Dora having to work, Josue and his suggesting she write letters for the pilgrims?

21. The resolution of the story, for Josue, For Dora?

22. The religious dimensions of the film, the truck driver and his evangelical approach, the more devout and traditional Latin American devotions.?

23. Fernanda Montenegro and her screen presence, her interpretation of Dora, a self-centered woman, being challenged, initially failing, changing heart, gradually growing more humane, the bond with Josue, a mother figure?

24. A moving film about adults and children, their bonding?