It's quite a trick to marry social comment to entertainment but this one works to a fare-thee-well and although Brazilians and students of South American cultural and political life in the 1970s will get more out of it there's certainly enough left for the average Joe. To nutshell it; the dictatorship is fairly harsh, so much so that one particular couple decide to take it on the Jesse Owens while they can, the fly in the ointment being their twelve year old son, Mauro. Since they can't tell anyone the truth they dump him outside the apartment of his grandfather with instructions to tell him that they have just gone on vacation and will be back in time for the final of the World Cup - in which, of course, Brazil participated that year. So far so good but what they could have but didn't foresee was that grandfather died hours before which leaves Mauro stranded in a primarily Jewish and Ialian community where he knows no one. The main thrust of the film, of course, is how a twelve year old copes with this and it is not necessary to reveal more except to say that it's a fine movie.
