Mauro (played by Michel Joelsas) is like all ten-year-olds. He loves his parents, his friends, but most of all soccer. However innocence is only granted to the children of Brazil in 1970. Unbeknownst to Mauro, his parents are in trouble. They all quickly pack their things and take Mauro to his grandfather’s place. His parents continue to say that they are only ‘going on vacation’ and they should return soon. When Mauro asks when they would return, they say they will return by the World Cup. This sets the stage for Cao Hamburger’s The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2007).
1970 is a tumultuous year in Brazil. The political climate is changing with a dictatorship taking over which creates a militant state for those who are opposed to the new regime. Mauro, left in care of his grandfather, Motel (Paulo Autran), in a Jewish town of Sao Paulo or so they thought. He waits for hours until Motel’s neighbor, Shlomo (Germano Haiut) comes home and finds Mauro on Motel’s doorstep. What Mauro doesn’t know is Motel died earlier that day. Shlomo takes him in and when Mauro tells him that his parents are on vacation, Shlomo doesn’t believe it. Seeking advice on what to do with him, Shlomo goes to his Rabbi and the community elders. They tell him to take care of the boy and wait for his parents until the World Cup.
Shlomo follows this advice, but Mauro and he have a difficult time adjusting to each other as Mauro was not raised Jewish as his father was. But both learn to adapt to each other. Meanwhile, Mauro discovers the other children that live in the neighborhood and quickly becomes friends with Hannah (Daniela Piepszyk). At first Mauro rejects her and the others afraid to leave the telephone, but eventually he becomes brave enough to do so and joins Hannah and her gang of boys as they play soccer and pay her admission to her mother’s clothing shop to see the young women undress.
Hamburger’s portrayal of innocence in a chaotic world is priceless. He essentially asks the question: ‘When should a child know the full truth? Or do they know the full truth already?’ But these questions are left to the viewer to decide as it is never fully answered in the film. In the end innocence never ends, it continues on in a dualistic life outside reality. The only unifying aspect of this world is the World Cup where everyone bands together in hopes that Brazil wins. Everyone from the children to the Rabbi gather in groups in the diner, in their own homes, to cheer on the team to victory.
Michel Joelsas does a excellent portrayal of Mauro, but when the subject of his character’s parents’ ‘vacation’ comes up he handles the denial that the possibility that he was abandoned wonderfully. In response to any discussion, he delves back into the one thing he loves: soccer. Soccer is a refuge for him to cope with life without his parents. Germano Haiut also does well portraying Shlomo. He is a man who never really handled children before and at first he is hesistant, but sympathic to Mauro’s situation. As time passes by he grows fond of Mauro to call him his own.
The movie is a great independent foreign film that deals with a child’s point-of-view of a chaotic world. Usually this is not my type of film, but on occasion a film does change my perspective. This film is recommended for those who enjoy The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) and The Sixth Sense (1999).