The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias) (2007)
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83% of critics liked it
(53 reviews) -
81% of users liked it
(3,220 ratings)
A 12-year-old Brazilian boy who longs to see his team win out over Italy in the 1970 World Cup match finds his entire world turned upside down as his left-wing parents are forced into hiding and he is sent to live with his grandfather in São Paulo's Bom Retiro district. Though his country is… More A 12-year-old Brazilian boy who longs to see his team win out over Italy in the 1970 World Cup match finds his entire world turned upside down as his left-wing parents are forced into hiding and he is sent to live with his grandfather in São Paulo's Bom Retiro district. Though his country is being held in the grip of a military dictatorship and the war in Vietnam is raging abroad, young Mauro can't seem to think about anything else but the upcoming World Cup match between Brazil and Italy. If Jairzinho, Pelé, and company can just win their third World Cup title, team Brazil will earn their third star on the strip -- a feat that no other team in the history of the sport has ever managed to accomplish. When his Catholic mother and Jewish father are suddenly forced to go "on holiday," young Mauro is swept out of his middle-class existence in Minas Gerais and taken to stay with his paternal grandfather in bustling Bom Retiro. A multi-ethnic district in which Jews, Arabs, and Greeks all live side by side, Bom Retiro begins to heat up with World Cup fever as things both at home and abroad all seem to be spiraling toward disaster. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Directed By
- Cao Hamburger
- Written By
- Claudio Galperin, Braulio Mantovani, Anna Muylaert, Cao Hamburger
- Genres
- Drama, Art House & International, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Sep 26, 2006 Wide
- Studio
- City Lights Pictures
Critic Reviews
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Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Director Cao Hamburger has a warm, delicate sensibility that informs the story's commonplace events. Neither the story's drama nor its comedy are overstated.
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John Hartl, Seattle Times
This Brazilian coming-of-age drama, co-produced by City of God creator Fernando Meirelles, charms because it rarely spells things out.
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Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
Be patient and brace yourself for the climax; the wait is definitely worthwhile.
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Philip Marchand, Toronto Star
Director Cao Hamburger, a Brazilian of Italian and German descent, treats this development with a very light hand.
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John Anderson, Washington Post
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation seems to be about, in the end, is big-time sport as the opiate of the masses.
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Cast
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Michel Joelsas
as Mauro
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Germano Haiut
as Shlomo
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Caio Blat
as Italo
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Daniela Piepszyk
as Hanna
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Liliana Castro
as Irene
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Simone Spoladore
as Mother
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Eduardo Moreira
as Father
- Rodrigo dos Santos
- Paulo Autran
- Dos Santos