The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

Brazil in 1970. The country has been under a military dictatorship since 1964 and, in Mexico, the Brazilian football team is trying to win its third World Cup title. There's nothing that twelve-year-old Mauro wants more than this title because then, Jairzinho, Pelé and company would finally be able to sport that third star on their strip - something that no other team has ever achieved. But then, when his parents suddenly go on holiday, Mauro, whose mother is Catholic and whose father is Jewish, finds himself in the completely different world of his paternal grandfather. Putting the sleepy middle-class town of Minas Gerais behind him, Mauro heads for São Paulo's Bom Retiro district. The area's Greek, Arab, Jewish and above all Italian popu lation makes it one of the city's liveliest quarters. And then all at once it's the final and Italy are to play Brazil in Mexico City. (Berlinale)