"Actor: Fernanda de Freitas"

• Central Station | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In the opening scenes of Central Station, colourful crowds of Brazilians stream into and out of a Rio de Janeiro train, pushing through doors and windows. You're immediately pulled into the brutal vitality of a nation in motion, setting the tone for a picturesque road movie that charts Brazil's renaissance in a little boy's search for his father and an old woman's emotional reawakening. When we first meet Dora (Fernanda Montenegro), this frozen-hearted, sour-faced woman is the epitome of immobility: day after day, she sits in the train station selling her letter-writing skills to all comers, but often doesn't bother to mail these precious messages. When a woman who's paid Dora to write a pleading note to her son's long-missing dad gets run over by a bus, the child, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), is up for grabs. (The summary execution of a thieving street kid--seen in longshot--underscores the seriousness of this waif's plight.) After an abortive attempt to sell Josue for a new TV, the aspiring couch potato finds herself reluctantly propelled into an occasionally Fellini-esque odyssey through the hinterlands of Brazil's sertäo, where Dora and her sidekick find unexpected faith and family. Former documentary filmmaker Walter Salles (Foreign Land) mixes magic with realism in his appreciation of striking faces and places, but Central Station is primarily fuelled by the tough/tender performances of Montenegro, Brazil's Judi Dench, and de Oliveira, an airport shoeshine boy Salles cast over 1,500 other hopefuls. (Montenegro was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, and Central Station was in the running for Best Foreign Language Film.) No cloyingly cute child-star, de Oliveira plays Josue as a bracingly idiosyncratic brat. And watching Dora's face and soul slowly, unwillingly unclench as she gets back in motion--and emotion--is potent pleasure, even if Salles' trip does dead-end in soap opera as his Brazilian pilgrim's progress winds down. --Kathleen Murphy, Amazon.com

• The Violin Teacher | DVD | (27/06/2016) from £18.42   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  After failing to be admitted into the renowned São Paulo Symphonic Orchestra, talented violinist Laerte is forced to teach music in a public school in Heliópolis, the biggest and most violent slum of Brazil. There, Laerte experiences the brutal reality himself. Little by little, he is able to gain the trust of the students and the community while he starts to give classes in a less conventional way, opening the doors to a new world. Winner of the Best Brazilian Feature Film at the São Paulo International Film Festival 2015 and starring multiple award winner Lázaro Ramos (Side by Side, Irrational Heart), THE VIOLIN TEACHER is a poignant and touching story about friendship and the transforming power of music.