Behind the Sun (film)

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Behind the Sun
(Abril Despedaçado)

original film poster
Directed by Walter Salles
Produced by Arthur Cohn
Written by Ismail Kadare (novel)
Karim Ainouz
Sérgio Machado
Walter Salles
João Moreira Salles
Daniela Thomas
Starring Rodrigo Santoro
José Dumont
Rita Assemany
Othon Bastos
Wagner Moura
Vinícius de Oliveira
Ravi Ramos Lacerda
Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos
Music by Ed Cortês
Antonio Pinto
Beto Villares
Editing by Isabelle Rathery
Distributed by Buena Vista International
Miramax (US)
Release date(s) 12 December 2001 (US)
1 May 2002 (Brazil)
Running time 105 min
Country Brazil
Language Portuguese
Budget $4 million
IMDb profile

Behind the Sun (Portuguese title: Abril Despedaçado) is a Golden Globe-nominated 2001 Brazilian film directed by Walter Salles, produced by Arthur Cohn, starring Rodrigo Santoro. Its original Portuguese title means Shattered April, and it is based on the novel of that name by Ismail Kadare, about the honor culture in the remote mountains of Albania.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The year is 1910; the place the badlands of Northeast Brazil. Twenty-year-old Tonio is the middle son of an impoverished farm family, the Breves. He is next in line to kill and then die in an ongoing blood feud with a neighboring clan, the Ferreiras. For generations, the two families have quarreled over land. Now they are locked into a series of tit-for-tat assassinations of their sons; an eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth. Embedded in this choreography of death is a particular code of ethics: "Blood has the same volume for everyone. You have no right to take more blood than was taken from you." Life is suffused with a sense of futility and stoic despair.

Under pressure from his father, Tonio kills one of the Ferreira sons to avenge the murder of his older brother. This act marks him as the next victim. Tonio's younger brother is addressed only as "the Kid" by the family. Anticipating future loss, his parents don't give him a name. The Kid is an imaginative and loving child, whose spirit will not break in the face of harsh parenting, brutalizing isolation, and numbing poverty. The Kid's love encourages Tonio to question his fate. When Tonio meets Clara, a charming itinerant circus girl, all of life's possibilities open up for him. Will he be able to escape? Can the cycle of human sacrifice be broken?


[edit] Main cast

  • José Dumont as the father
  • Rodrigo Santoro as Tonho, the eldest son
  • Rita Assemany as the Mother
  • Ravi Ramos Lacerda as Pacu
  • Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos as Salustiano
  • Flávia Marco Antonio as Clara
  • Everaldo Pontes as Old Blind Man
  • Caio Junqueira as Inácio
  • Mariana Loureiro as Widow
  • Servilio De Holanda as Isaías
  • Wagner Moura as Matheus
  • Othon Bastos as Mr. Lourenço
  • Gero Camilo as Reginaldo
  • Vinícius de Oliveira as Ferreira Family Member

[edit] Awards and nominations

BAFTA Film Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Havana Film Festival

  • Best Director – Walter Salles (won)
  • House of the Americas Award – Walter Salles (won)

Venice Film Festival

  • Little Golden Lion – Arthur Cohn and Walter Salles (won)
  • Golden Lion – Walter Salles (nominated)

[edit] Quotations

"Have you ever known what is love? No, you haven't. And you won't. Can you hear the ticking of this clock? It always says 'one-more, one-more, one-more'; but now it is different. To you, it says 'one-less, one-less, one-less'...".

[edit] External links

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