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'The Year My Parents Went On Vacation'

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BY JAN STUART | jan.stuart@newsday.com

February 14, 2008

Set in 1970 Sao Paolo, Cao Hamburger's sentimental memory piece tracks the tribulations and growing pains of Mauro, the 12-year-old son of political leftists on the run from the military dictatorship. Mauro (an overacting Michel Joelsas) is deposited at the door of his Jewish grandfather, only to find that the old man died that morning. The grandfather's elderly neighbor reluctantly takes him in, after much oy-ing and vay-ing (it seems Mauro's mother was not Jewish).

Despite the dark setup, Mauro and the picture settle into a cozy quotidian rhythm that at times seems assembled from every coming-of-age drama ever made: He participates in peeping-Tom activities, develops a crush on a cafe waitress and revels in the World Cup mania that has all of Brazil in a tizzy. Hamburger's episodic scenario is both specific and precious in the way that history can be when filtered through the perspective of a pubescent boy.

The film's final third contains a glimmer of a great movie wanting to break out: Mauro and his friends rock out in spastic delirium at a bar mitzvah celebration, while police gallop by on horseback to spirit protesting students away to oblivion.

THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION. (unrated). 1:45 (mild violent and sexual content). In Portuguese, Yiddish and German with English subtitles. At Landmark Sunshine Cinema, Manhattan.