Central station = Central do Brasil

Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) is a retired school teacher who now makes her living writing letters for people in Rio de Janeiro’s hectic Central Station. Embittered by her poverty and hard life she never posts the letters she writes for the city’s illiterates. Her life is drastically changed, however, when a young boy, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), insists she post a letter his mother had written to his estranged father shortly before she was killed. Initially resistant, Dora takes responsibility for Josue and they begin a long road journey through the heart of the country to find Josue’s father. “Central Station” is a film that celebrates the humanity of its characters whilst refusing to either exploit or diminish the brutal realities of life for Brazil’s homeless and working poor. Whether showing us the squalor of Rio, the vast mountainous beauty of southern Brazil, the ecstatic richness of a religious festival or the endless uniform drabness of working class estates, Walter Salles’ direction remains assured and free of sentimentality. The performances by Montenegro, de Oliveira and Marila Pera are outstanding. Winner of the Golden Bear at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. In Portugese with English subtitles.