Central Station

Central Station is a Brazilian film directed by Walter Salles. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. The story takes place in Rio de Janeiro at a central station about a older woman named Dora. Dora is a lonely woman who has never been married. She used to be a schoolteacher and now she writes letters for illiterate people and mails them; however she actually tears up a lot of the letters for the customers she does not like or care about. One customer is a single mother with a 9 year old son, Josue. Josue never met his father who he still idolizes, however Dora knows from the letters that his father is a drunk. One day Josue's mother gets hit by a bus and dies. Josue now has no one to take care of him and nowhere to go so Dora decides to take care of him. She then sells him to some people involved in child trafficking but then takes him back. Now that she is in trouble and can't go back home she has no choice but to leave and help Josue locate his father. Along their Journey they do a lot of travelling, meet some new people. Dora finds a man that she might have an intimate relationship with but then she scares him away. Along the way Dora and Josue start to get along and eventually develop a strong friendship. The two had money issues and then they solved it by working together and writing letters for people. Eventually Dora and Josue find where Josue's father lives. When they arrive there they discover Josue's father is not there but two his two older sons are. Dora and Josue lie about their identities to the older brothers. The older brother tell Dora and Josue how their father had left 6 months ago and hasn't been heard of since. However the father had left a letter behind but the older brothers can't read. Dora reads the letter and they discover the father went out looking for Josue and his mother. Dora is sure Josue's father will return and the next morning she leaves Josue with his two older brothers and leaves a letter behind for him. She sets out to start a new life elsewhere.

I believe some of the main themes of Central Station were hope, friendship, and loneliness. There were many signs of hope in the film. Josue hoped to meet and father one day which is why he went on the journey. Dora had hoped to find a man one day she can fall in love with and when she met the trucker she thought he might be that man. Dora also had hope Josue's father would return one day. Many of the characters in the film had hope and they also never achieved any of their hopes, Josue still hadn't found his father and Dora is still alone, however the characters still remain hopeful at the end of the film. Other themes were friendship and loneliness; Dora was a lonely woman and Josue had just lost his mother and has never met his father. The two are lonely souls and they meet and go on an emotional journey where they develop a strong bond.

My reaction to Central Station was that I felt it was a great film, it was very touching and emotional. I felt Fernanda Montenegro's performance was fantastic. I loved the story and felt it was very moving. It was a very touching film that included you in this emotional journey with these two characters that you become deeply drawn into. I believe this is a film I would recommend everyone to watch.