Movie Review: The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

By Michael Phillips, Tribune Movie Critic

3-1/2 stars

From Brazil, "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" always was destined for more audience love than jury recognition on the international festival circuit. Its style isn't distinctive, and its texture is more sentimental than polemical. But this 1970-set tale of a 12-year-old shaped by three driving forces - his country's brutal dictatorship, his left-wing parents' disappearance and a nation's obsession with the World Cup - pulls you into a well-observed world and its characters. Writer-director Cao Hamburger uses soccer as a natural through-line to one ardent young fan's coming-of-age story.

The film begins with a scene that feels just right, chaotic but not melodramatic. The boy is Mauro, played by Michel Joelsas. His mother waits for his chronically late father to arrive home, so that the parents can pile into their VW with a suspicious number of belongings. They drop Mauro at the curb of his grandfather's house. "Don't forget, we're on vacation," Mauro's father says to Mauro. They promise to return in time to enjoy the World Cup together.

The story's one narrative whopper arrives early: Mauro's grandfather, it turns out, has just died. There is no one to meet the boy. The deceased grandfather's neighbor is a stoic, isolated Orthodox Jew (played by Germano Haiut) who wonders, who is this apparent goy (Mauro's half-Jewish, we learn) wandering the dark halls of the Sao Paulo apartment complex, kicking his soccer ball against the walls? Thus begins a rickety, makeshift relationship between reluctant guardian and a boy whose parents have suddenly, in fear of their dissident lives, gone on vacation.

"The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" takes place in Bom Retiro district of Sao Paulo, home to a large Jewish community as well as a melange of other religions, ethnicities and cultures, all of whom were nuts about Pele. Young Mauro, the girl upstairs (Daniela Piepszyk) and the dishy waitress around the corner (Liliana Castro) share a dream: to see Brazil win a third World Cup. Mauro's larger dream, to once again see his parents, remains a question mark for most of this absorbing comedy-drama, which asks that the audience take for granted the political backdrop of the story (one that could've used a dash more detail), and that the audience experience the peculiarity of being an exile in one's own country through a wide set of eyes. That's what the film asks, and it's easy to comply. Hamburger's fond but not sappy memory story certainly played well in its home country. But it travels very well indeed.

No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for thematic material).

Running time: 1:45.

Opening: Friday at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema, Renaissance Place Cinema, AMC River East 21 and AMC Cantera 30.

Starring: Michel Joelsas (Mauro); Germano Haiut (Schlomo); Daniela Piepszyk (Hanna), Liliana Castro (Irene).

Directed by Cao Hamburger; written by Claudio Galperin, Braulio Mantovani, Anna Muylaert and Hamburger; photographed by Adriano Goldman; edited by Daniel Rezende; music by Beto Villares; production design by Cassio Amarante; produced by Caio Gullane, Hamburger and Fabiano Gullane. A City Lights Pictures release.