Centro De Brasil

Centro De Brasil is about a former school teacher named Dora who now writes letters for a living and a boy named Josue who has just become an orphan. The two travel quite a distance in order to reunite the boy with his father; a man the boy holds in high regards yet has never known. Dora works at Rio de Janeiro’s Central Station writing letters for the illiterate in order to make money. She usually destroys the letters she writes or leaves them sitting in her bedroom drawer. Josue’s mother is one of Dora’s customers. His mother sends letters to his father through Dora, with hopes of one day being together again soon. However, she is run over and killed by a bus outside of the train station soon after leaving Josue homeless and an orphan. Dora sells him, but after feeling guilty, steals him back from his captors. Though unenthusiastic in nature, Dora sets out to reunite the boy with his father and leave him with him.

The major theme of the film appears revolve around perseverance and guilt. When the film starts, we see that Dora helps the illiterate communicate for a very cheap price. You think, “That’s nice of her.” But then we learned what happens to the letters she writes: they don’t go anywhere. Her jaded nature doesn’t stop there: Dora decides to assist Josue after feeling guilty about selling him to the black market. Throughout the film however, I found myself thinking she was just a nice person and had to remind myself that her neighbor made her feel guilty before she even decided to go along with the journey to the boys fathers house. Even after deciding to go along for the ride, she questions her altruism several times and even leaves him on the bus alone in an effort to abandon him. After several fallouts however, the two become legitimate friends and make it through several obstacles and accomplish their goal.

I liked the film overall. The only thing I really wondered was if the illiteracy rate in Brazil was really that high. I think the film deserved its Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe win for dramatic film. You could feel the tension between the two lead characters. You also felt sorry for Dora when the religious truck driver literally ran away from her advances. At that point however, is when the two of them start to become friends and truly bond with one another. Through the entire movie, feeling and emotion just seemed to escape from the screen every sixty seconds.