CENTRAL STATION

 

FOUR STARS - Encouraging

 

 

               When the time comes for a night at home with a good video, we would recommend the newly released "Central Station", the 1999 Academy Awarwinner for best foreign film.

               Opening in the midst of Rio de Janeiro's crowded railroad terminus, this endearing story is a spiritual journey of an old woman looking for a second chance.  Into her life comes a small boy who serves as an angel of redemption.

               Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) is a retired teacher makes her living by penning letters for the illiterate.  A woman dictates a declaration of love to her jailed boyfriend.  An old man sends a sarcastic message to a friend who cheated him.  Another woman, accompanied by her 10-year-old son Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), wants to let his "worthless" father know of the boy's desire to meet him.

               Each night Dora goes back to her apartment and along with her neighbor Irene (Marilia Pêra) open the letters and laugh.  All of the dead letters end up in a drawer designated as "purgatory" by the world weary Dora.

               A few days later, the mother and son return and want to rescind the sending of their letter. It seems that the wayward father may not as heartless as the first letter implied, and a second letter is drafted pleading for a long sought reunion.  More than anything else, young Josue longs to know the father he never knew.

               Then, as often happens in our lives, a simple transaction turns into a life-changing event  The mother and son step off the curb in front of the Central Station, and the mother is killed by a reckless driver.  In the midst of this horror, young Josue has no where to go and no relatives to care for him.

               Underscored with the quite natural fear of a child, Josue seeks, and then demands, that Dora help him find his father.  Dora resists any attempt towards compassion.  To shield herself from his emotional advances, Dora "sells" Josue to an orphanage which uses children for questionable purposes.

               But Dora, too, has been abandoned in her own life.  Her own experience ultimately convicts her conscience and she reluctantly returns to reclaim Josue.

               Young Josue, with just the right touch of Brazilian male bravado, makes as much an impression on us as his character makes on Dora.   What develops in their fledgling relationship is the heart and soul of the film.

               Dora and Josue begin a long bus journey to find his father, and along the way they find a new love for each other.  He reawakens in her a humanity and love that she forgot could exist.  She gives to him a security and hope that he desperately needed. 

               Along the way, a Christian truck driver teaches them a lesson in honesty.  In another town they join a procession of believers seeking healing from Jesus.  When they finally arrive at their destination they discover that Josue's father had never abandoned him.  Both of them discover that the father's love triumphs over all hardship.

               This journey reveals a remarkable amount of spiritual insights.  But what adds to the context of the story is the way the film is made.  Using a small ensemble cast, all of the other people in the film are not staged extras, but rather Brazilians living life as it actually happens.  Its authenticity is a remarkable gift.

 

 

(Words:  560)

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