The early 1970s have become a popular time for coming-of-age stories in the movies — naturally enough, since the children of that generation have grown up and become writers and filmmakers.
“The Year My Parents Went on Vacation” is in this category, and it benefits from its South American perspective. A little boy in Brazil, Mauro (Michel Joelsas), finds himself abruptly taken to Sao Paulo and dropped at the doorstep of his grandfather.
The grandfather lives in a traditional Jewish neighborhood. Wait, check that — he lived in the neighborhood. Unbeknownst to Mauro’s parents, who meant well, the grandfather has just died.
But the parents can’t come back to get their son. They are “going on vacation,” which in Brazil in 1970 means fleeing repressive government authorities. Maybe they’re in custody, maybe they’re in hiding; nobody knows.
Mauro is taken in by his grandfather’s neighbor (Germano Haiut) and other denizens of this Yiddish-speaking neighborhood, and some dreamlike weeks pass by. The World Cup in soccer is happening, and Brazil’s team is steaming toward the finals — a running drama that gives Mauro a reason to stay interested while he wonders when his folks are coming back.
Director and co-writer Cao Hamburger, who grew up in Sao Paulo, obviously knows this milieu, and it feels as though we’re eavesdropping on real events. The Jewish neighborhood has an authentic feel of an insular community with its own life pulse.
I wish there was something a little more distinctive about the film, something to ruffle the expected progression from A to B to C. The political climate in Brazil is key to the story line, but the fact of a military dictatorship squelching free speech during this period is mostly left as a vague suggestion, an excuse for a boy’s childhood adventure.
That childhood idyll is well done. But, unlike the 1970 Brazil World Cup team, it leaves you wanting more.
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