CENTRAL STATION (M). (Dendy Films) Director: Walter Salles Stars: Fernanda Montenegro, Vincinius De Oliviera, Marila Pera, Soia Lira Running time: 110 minutes (Spanish, with English subtitles).
At heart, Central Station (Central do Brasil) is a road movie in which two characters with little in common develop a strong bond of friendship that changes them. Central Station also has a humanity and sense of compassion that sets it apart from a number of similarly themed films. The central story of an unlikely friendship that develops between a hard hearted elderly curmudgeon and the young boy who becomes her reluctant companion on an odyssey fondly recalls the recent Oscar winner Kolya. This simple, yet heart warming tale will appeal to a similar audience.
Central Station is set in Rio De Janeiro, a sprawling and pitiless city in which overcrowding, abject poverty and illiteracy are rife. Dora (played magnificently by veteran Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro) is a retired school teacher who ekes out a living as a letter writer. Based in the heart of Brazil's sprawling Central Station, Dora patiently writes letters for the illiterate population at a dollar a letter. However, every night she returns to her flat where she and her neighbour Irene (Marilia Pera) decide which of the letters to post.
One day she encounters Ana (Soia Lira) and her nine year old son Josue (Vincinius de Oliviera), who wants to send a letter to her husband, a drunkard who abandoned her years ago. She wants to arrange a meeting between him and the son he has never met, but Dora doesn't post the letter, believing that Ana is better off without him. A couple of days later Ana is killed in an accident outside the station, and Josue is left all alone.
Initially indifferent to the boy's fate, Dora eventually takes pity on him and brings him home. She then sells him to an adoption agency for some desperately needed cash. But when she learns that the agency may actually be a front for an international organisation that kills orphaned kids for the organs, she rescues Josue and sets out to return him to his father. It is a journey that transforms the two, bringing them closer together.
As the odd pair travel into an increasingly remote and harsh destination, Salles takes the audience on a parallel journey through contemporary Brazil. He exposes the harsh reality of this depressing country, but he somehow finds an optimistic and hopeful streak that augurs well for the future. Dora is symbolic of the old, traditional Brazil, while Josue comes to represent the future and change. A grim scene in which a young shoplifter is brutally executed shows the fate that would probably have awaited young Josue.
The film benefits enormously from the two wonderful central performances that grab the audience's sympathy. Montenegro is superb, and her wonderfully expressive and beautifully nuanced performance conveys the spectacular emotional growth of her character. She moves from the bitter, weary and cynical old woman we meet at the start to one who develops maternal feelings and experiences compassion for probably the first time in her life. It is an extraordinary performance that makes this transformation credible. In his debut film role, young de Oliviera has a winning, unassuming and natural charm that will melt hearts. He almost steals the film away from Montenegro.
A former documentary film maker with an interest in themes of identity and exile, Salles brings a sense of compassion and compelling realism to the film's political subtext. However, he eschews the cynical manipulation that suffuses most American movies that travel this terrain. Heavily influenced by legendary directors of the calibre of John Ford, Visconti and the late Akira Kurosawa, Salles' film explores a similar emotional and physical terrain. This haunting and moving film also resonates with a similar sense of epic sweep and visual beauty. Walter Carvalho's often breath taking cinematography captures the harsh beauty and landscapes of Brazil and is an integral part of the charm of this deeply affecting and moving film.
It's a pity that Central Station was nominated for an Oscar in the same year as Roberto Benigni's wonderful Life Is Beautiful, because it is would also have been a worthy winner.
**** greg king http://www.netau.com.au/gregking
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