The Year my Parents Went on Vacation takes place in 1970 in Brazil. It was a tumultuous yet exciting time to live in the country. At the time Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship that frequently arrested accused dissidents. Yet it was also the year that the national soccer team, led by superstar Pelé, was on its way to win the World Cup.
The film centers on a young 12-year old boy named Mauro (Michel Joelsas), whose parents leave him with his paternal grandfather after having to go underground to avoid arrest.
When Mauro arrives at his grandfather's Sao Paolo apartment, young Mauro discovers that the grandfather that he never met had died just minutes earlier.
Mauro is brought in by his grandfather's neighbor, Shlomo (Germano Haiut), who acts like his surrogate parent. Shlomo is an orthodox Jew who works in the local synagogue and seamlessly moves between Portuguese and Yiddish.
But Mauro's father is Jewish, which, according to the religious community he finds himself thrust into makes him a "goy," a term they pejoratively call him initially. Much of the narrative concerns the tensions between Mauro and the traditionalist community that brings him in.
This issue is first raised when Mauro is caught peeing in Shlomo's houseplant because Shlomo is taking too long in the bathroom.
Shlomo is stunned, not so much that Mauro is peeing in the middle of his living room, but that he is not circumcised. While some of the Yiddish is subtitled for the audience, much of it isn't. The selective translation effectively conveys Mauro's confusion and sense of otherness.
Yet it does not take long for Mauro to become embraced by the community. He sits around daily being overfed by elderly Jewish women and dragged to synagogue where he sits bewildered among the bearded men. He also befriends several kids in the neighborhood, including a girl on whom he has a mutual, yet unspoken of crush.
The Sao Paolo neighborhood reveals the multicultural fabric of urban life. Groups mingle, yet largely keep apart in daily life. It is soccer, however, that serves to bring everyone together.
During the World Cup everyone in the country from the orthodox rabbi to the young college students are glued to their television sets. The sport also serves to bring people together on the local level.
One particularly comical scene involves a soccer match between the local Jewish and Italian communities. The Jewish team's goalie is none other than a black Catholic man.
Soccer is also the sport that inspires and distracts young Mauro. Mauro dreams of becoming a goalie, a position that he understands to be the one in which mistakes cannot be made. The goalie serves as a symbol for the position that Mauro finds himself in, alone and his own protector.
While Mauro's abandonment forms the heart of the story, both narratively and emotionally, there is also the subtext of the volatile political situation in Brazil in 1970.
Yet the film is a character-centered one. This is both a plus and a minus. The acting is tremendous, and executed powerfully yet realistically. Joelsas captures the confusion and contradictions of being caught between childhood and adulthood. Haiut, too, effectively portrays the struggle of an old man who unexpectedly is given the job of caring for a child who is not his own.
However, the character-centered drama can sometimes verge on triteness. Sure, characters learn and grow and change. Yet the story sometimes makes these character developments seem contrived.
The cinematography is magnificent. Mirrors and reflections are used artfully, avoiding any lapse into gimmickry. The costumes and sets bring the Sao Paolo streets to life.
The Year my Parents Went on Vacation is an ambitious film. Family, ethnicity, religion, assimilation, Brazilian politics and the role of sports as a national unifier are all issues that the film explores. Despite the plethora of topics that the film deals with, it does not feel overwhelming. The film flows smoothly, incorporating all of these themes while delving into the complexities of the characters.
