The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

Brazil, early summer, 1970. A military dictatorship is coming to power, and dissidents must go into hiding as soon as the authorities take over. The parents of twelve-year-old Mauro are among these, and they move the boy to his grandfather’s place in São Paolo while they are away on “vacation.” However, things don’t turn out as they had planned. Mauro ends up living with the crotchety old Shlomo in Bom Retiro, a neighborhood comprised of Jews, Greeks, Arabs and above all, Italian immigrants. With the political situation as a backdrop, a sparkling tale is told about solidarity, unlikely friendships – and football. Brazil, the legendary team with Pelé leading the way, has the chance of winning its third World Championship. For Mauro, only one thing is more important than a victory – that Papa comes home for the final.

In an interview director Cao Hamburger explains further: ”The Year My Parents Went on Vacation deals with a new reality as experienced by a preadolescent boy who is suddenly forced to use his own wits to surmount the obstacles life places in his path and, more than this, to get used to living in a Jewish community, in a setting such as Brazil, in which soccer is a strong cultural component. It is a film about exile. On the various modes of exile, on how Mauro learns that life is transitory and how he learns to get along with others and survive in this world of ours.”

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is Hamburger's second feature film, and has won several awards, including the Special Jury Award and Critics Award at last years film festival in São Paulo and the Audience Award at the film festival in Rio de Janeiro. The film was also nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear at this years Berlinale. sis