Central Station (1998)
Central do Brasil
Between hope and solitude, two lives cross and reinvent themselves
1998-04-03 · Drama · 111 min
Directed by Walter Salles
Overview
An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
Cast
-
Fernanda Montenegro
Isadora 'Dora' Teixeira
-
Vinícius de Oliveira
Josué Fontenele de Paiva
-
Marília Pêra
Irene
-
Othon Bastos
César
-
Otávio Augusto
Pedrão
-
Matheus Nachtergaele
Isaías Paiva
-
Caio Junqueira
Moisés Paiva
-
Stela Freitas
Yolanda
-
Maria Menezes
Waitress
- Sergio Kato Dora's Client
-
Soia Lira
Ana Fontenele
-
Rita Assemany
Jessé's Wife
- Harildo Déda Bené
- Gildásio Leite Man on the bus
-
Nanego Lira
Nordeste preacher
- José Pereira da Silva Dora's Client
-
Everaldo Pontes
Dora's Client
- Inaldo Santana Dora's Client
- Gideon Rosa Jessé
-
Antonieta Noronha
Violeta
Crew
- Director
- Walter Salles
- Director of Photography
- Walter Carvalho
- Editor
- Felipe Lacerda
- Editor
- Isabelle Rathery
- Original Music Composer
- Antonio Pinto
- Original Music Composer
- Jaques Morelenbaum
- Producer
- Walter Salles
- Producer
- Arthur Cohn
- Producer
- Jack Gajos
- Producer
- Paulo Carlos De Brito
- Producer
- Martine De Clermont-Tonnerre
- Screenplay
- Walter Salles
- Screenplay
- Marcos Bernstein
- Screenplay
- João Emanuel Carneiro
Details
- Budget
- $2,900,000
- Revenue
- $5,596,708
- IMDb
- tt0140888
- TMDB
- 666
Keywords
Videos
Reviews
CinemaSerf · ★ 7 · 2025-09-18
“Dora” (Fernanda Montenegro) used to be a school teacher, but now she sits at a table in the station in Rio de Janeiro and writes letters for the illiterate traveller for a few réals a time. She thinks little of a woman and her young son who stop by, except perhaps that he isn’t the most trusting of boys, but when a tragedy promptly befalls this pair she finds herself being asked to write another letter by the young “Josué” (Vinícius de Oliviera) - who’s still fairly suspicious that she never posted the last one! This one is to his dad in a remote town but what is he going to do, alone and penniless, in a city fraught with danger? Despite the fact that she is initially as keen to be shot of him as he of her, the two begin a journey that they hope will reunite him with his father, but that will certainly see these reluctant companions push each other’s buttons as their meagre funds barely stretch to the bus fares. If they ever do make it, what chance they will find and reconcile with his dad, or - for that matter - will “Josué” even recognise this man he has yet to meet? I’ve got to say, I’ve rarely seen a more engaging chemistry on screen than that on display here between these two. Montenegro is a natural - not just at portraying her own character but at gelling, convincingly, with an Oliviera whose mischievous urchin becomes an hugely charismatic personality that grows throughout. The road trip element serves to cement their relationship as you might expect, but it also shows us a little of life in Brazil’s fairly poverty-stricken and undeveloped interior as well as the decency of it’s population. This is a story that tells us of a significant episode in the lives of both of them but it’s incomplete and I found that to work really well, especially as it doesn’t contrive to create unnaturally melodramatic or histrionic scenarios. It’s underpinned by some skilfully written dialogue that provides for some characterful humour amidst the earnestness as they each wise up to the other and the all but two hours provides a personable and entertaining love story that’s poignant and really quite charming.
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