Behind the Sun (2001) Abril Despedaçado (original title)

Director:

Walter Salles

Writers:

Karim Ainouz
Ismail Kadare (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

28 February 2002 (Malaysia)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

When ordered by his father to avenge the death of his older brother, a young man questions the tradition of violence between two rival families.

Plot Keywords:

Death | Violence | Tradition | Circus | 1910s

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 8 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

José Dumont	...	Father
Rodrigo Santoro	...	Tonho
Rita Assemany	...	Mother
Ravi Ramos Lacerda	...	Pacu
Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos	...	Salustiano
Flavia Marco Antonio	...	Clara
Everaldo Pontes	...	Old Blind Man (as Everaldo De Souza Pontes)
Caio Junqueira	...	Inácio
Mariana Loureiro	...	Widow
Servílio de Holanda	...	Isaías
Wagner Moura	...	Matheus
Othon Bastos	...	Mr. Lourenço
Gero Camilo	...	Reginaldo
Vinícius de Oliveira	...	Ferreira Family Member
Soia Lira	...	Ferreira Family Member
Maria do Socorro Nobre	...	Ferreira Family Member

Directed by
Walter Salles

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Karim Ainouz
Ismail Kadare		novel
Sérgio Machado
João Moreira Salles		additional dialogue
Walter Salles
Daniela Thomas		additional dialogue

Produced by
Simon Arnal	....	associate producer (as Simon Arnal-Szlovak)
Caroline Benjo	....	associate producer
Lillian Birnbaum	....	executive producer
Beto Bruno	....	producer: second unit
Arthur Cohn	....	producer
Christina Crassaris	....	associate producer
Jean Labadie	....	associate producer
Mauricio Andrade Ramos	....	executive producer
Carole Scotta	....	associate producer
Marcelo Torres	....	line producer
Ruth Waldburger	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Ed Cortês
Antonio Pinto
Beto Villares

Cinematography by
Walter Carvalho

Film Editing by
Isabelle Rathery

Casting by
Sérgio Machado

Art Direction by
Cassio Amarante

Set Decoration by
Marcelo Larrea

Costume Design by
Cao Albuquerque

Makeup Department
Martín Macías Trujillo	....	makeup artist (as Martin Macias Trujilolo)
Gabi Moraes	....	makeup artist
Irma Verdugal	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Guy Courtecuisse	....	post-production manager
Christina Crassaris	....	post-production supervisor
Leonardo Oest	....	assistant production manager
Severo Santos	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Márcia Faria	....	first assistant director
Sérgio Machado	....	assistant director
Claudia Nogarotto	....	second assistant director
Martina Rupp	....	trainee assistant director

Art Department
Mônica Costa	....	set designer
Marcelo Larrea	....	set dresser
Marcelo Laurino	....	set dresser
Jucétio Chaves Pereira Silva	....	assistant property master
Bia Pessoa	....	art painter
Bia Pessoa	....	assistant art director
Wagner Tavares	....	property master

Sound Department
Felix Andrew	....	sound mixer
Hervé Buirette	....	sound mix assistant
Nuno Cardoso	....	sound assistant
Ludovic Delzenne	....	sound recordist
Rômulo Drummond	....	boom operator
Patrick Giraudi	....	additional sound re-recording mixer
François Groult	....	sound
Judith Guittier	....	foley assistant
Leandro Lima	....	sound assistant
Laurent Lévy	....	foley artist
Michel Monier	....	stereo sound consultant: Dolby
Régis Muller	....	assistant sound editor
François Musy	....	sound engineer
Waldir Xavier	....	sound

Special Effects by
Mauricio Couto Bevilaqua	....	special effects
Philippe Hubin	....	special effects
Guillaume Watrinet	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Annie Dautane	....	visual effects producer
François Dumoulin	....	digital compositor
Eve Ramboz	....	digital compositor

Camera and Electrical Department
Pablo Baião	....	second assistant camera
Alberto Bellezia	....	second assistant camera
Lula Carvalho	....	first assistant camera
Walter Carvalho	....	still photographer
Christian Cravo	....	still photographer
Fabião Da Conceição	....	assistant lighting technician
Claudio Gustavo da Silva	....	third assistant camera
Vagner da Silva	....	assistant lighting technician
Wilson de Lima Martins	....	assistant grip
Miguel Efe	....	grip
José Gomes	....	key grip
Júlio Guimarães	....	grip
Olivio Lima	....	lighting technician
Ronaldo Neves Lopes	....	lighting technician
Betão Ribeiro	....	gaffer
João Villela	....	video assist operator

Casting Department
Beth Accioly	....	casting: São Paulo

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Fernanda Fabrizzi	....	assistant costume designer
António Medeiros	....	assistant costume designer
Jefferson Miranda	....	assistant costume designer
Renato Ribeiro	....	costume assistant
Dalva Santiago	....	costume assistant

Editorial Department
Bianca Costa	....	post-production coordinator
Guy Courtecuisse	....	post-production director: Paris
Nicolas Criqui	....	digital conformation
Manuel De Sousa	....	assistant editor
Yvan Lucas	....	color timer
Marsan-Bachere	....	film grader (as Mathieu Marsan-Bachere)
Tuong Vi Nguyen-Long	....	assistant editor
Flávio Nunes	....	on-line editor
Stéphanie Pedelacq	....	assistant editor
Marcelo Pedrazzi	....	first assistant editor
Alexandre Saggese	....	assistant editor: avid

Music Department
Dan DiPrima	....	music editor

Other crew
Benjamin Baltimore	....	title designer
Jean-Baptiste Beaudoin	....	production assistant: Paris
Sophie Bernard	....	assistant: Mr. Salles
Maria Carlota Fernandes Bruno	....	executive production assistant
Eduardo Colombiano	....	production secretary
Guy Courtecuisse	....	post-production manager
Fábio da Silva Figueiredo	....	assistant accountant
Christelle Didier	....	production assistant: Paris
Ana Cristina Lewer	....	assistant accountant
Mónica Lima	....	first production assistant
Anna Luiza Müller	....	publicist
Olivier Pasquier	....	production administrator: Paris
Adelina Pontual	....	continuity
Erika Safira	....	production assistant: Rio
Fernando Santos	....	accountant
Rossella Terranova	....	acting coach
Andrea Weidmann	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Bac Films
• Dan Valley Film AG
• Haut et Court
• VideoFilmes

Distributors

• Annie Planet (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Buena Vista International (2002) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• GAGA (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Buena Vista International Italia
• Buena Vista International (Argentina)
• Buena Vista International (Germany)
• Buena Vista International
• Gativideo (Argentina) (DVD)
• Gativideo (Argentina) (VHS)
• Mars Distribution
• Miramax Films (USA) (subtitled)

Special Effects

• La Maison (digital effects)

Other Companies

• Cinéstéréo  optical transfer

Also Known As:

"Abril Despedaçado" - Brazil (original title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some violence and a scene of sexuality

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Brazil | France | Switzerland

Language:

Portuguese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Argentina:13 | Brazil:12 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:12 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Iceland:LH

Filming Locations:

Bom Sossego, Bahia, Brazil

Company:

Bac Films

Movie Connections:

References Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz (1984)

A triumph of good movie-making

This movie starts with a blood-stained shirt hanging under a strong wind. We will learn, later on, that it belongs to the eldest son of a small rural farmer (the Breves) in the drought-plagued, sun-drenched, desperately poor Northeast region of Brazil. He was killed in an ambush by a member of another family, the Ferreiras, starting a feud (which in the past -- the year is 1910 -- was very common in this region and could last for decades). Vengeance is required by the rough peasant's honor system, but a truce period is dictated by the slow yellowing of the blood stains under the sun.

One of the things that are extraordinary in this gorgeous movie is the way we learn all this. The slow tempo of images, their rough poetic beauty, with an eerie musical background, tells everything we must know without words, but with skillful dramatic suspense. A lot of symbolism is also present: for instance, the sugarcane mill operated by the Breves family is powered by a pair of bulls walking endlessly around. The family patriarch is behind them all the time, forcing with a whip and shouts their round about. The oxen are so used to it that when the yoke is removed at the end of the day, they continue marching by their own around the mill! So, this is an apt metaphor for the routine, yoked, forced existence of the family under the weight of the father's authority and of tradition, an existence they see as a kind of inescapable karma.

The remaining eldest son of the Breves (played superbly by Rodrigo Santoro) must now exact revenge on his dead brother. There is no way out, so, reluctantly, he does just that and kills the eldest son of the Ferreira family in a dramatic sequence, one of the best filmed I ever saw. He knows now that he will have a truce, too, until the bloodied shirt of his enemy yellows. His life is now divided into two, as the blind patriarch of the Ferreira clan tells him: the 20 years he has lived so far, and a week or so he still has to live, because death will surely come and he cannot dishonor his family by running away. The mutual killing cycle will so be like their bleak lives and the oxen's. It will be like two serpents eating each other tails until nothing remains, just a pool of blood (another touching metaphor described by one the characters). He has never known love, and will never know. April, the month when all this happened, was torn up (the meaning of the title in Portuguese, which was disgracefully altered in the English title).

The film's ambiance alternates between blinding sun and the dried up "caatinga" (the semi-arid plains typical of this region) and the darkness of the night, lighted only by primitive oil lamps and candles. Night always bring respite and rest, to the oxen as well as to the humans, but it also brings fear. The eldest son wants to escape from this life, to interrupt the oppressing lifestyle, to revolt against the symbol of all this, his father, and to stop the revenge cycle. He doesn't know how, but the sudden appearance of a two-person circus in the village changes everything. The metaphor is now apparent: a beautiful girl shows him that love is possible, that a new life elsewhere is possible, that there are many other things beyond his narrow horizon of poor peasant. His young brother gets a book as a gift from the girl and this opens up marvelous, fascinating storytelling and daydreaming, of constructing a new reality where the boy is hero and is desired, with a plot he can change at his will. Both brothers see a light at the end of the tunnel, a dark passage to a brighter day.

The movie paces up now to a climax that everybody is able to feel, the characters as well as the audience. The assassin is coming for him, the shirt stains have finally yellowed. Night falls and he meets for the first time his love. Heavy rain starts, a new metaphor, because it is so rare and so unexpected. Will this mean that there will be a way out for him, a meeting of a new life and world, a blossoming of life like the one is brought by rain in this parched land? How can he escape without dishonor to his family, without having to kill again?

The answer is at the same time simple and fully symbolic, too. I will not spoil the surprise, but I must say that is absolutely impressive and emotion-laden. When you see the film, you will understand the solution to this impasse, painful for some, liberating to others.

This is another triumph for young director Salles and his team, one of the best of the new breed of Brazilian cinema directors. His previous international success, "Central do Brasil" was excellent, too, and very properly incensed by critics and public alike. "Motorcycle Diaries" is also another movie by him, very well received. But "Abril Despedaçado" belongs to the rare category of a true masterpiece.