Central Station

            My favorite film that we saw in our International Film Class was definitely Central Station. The film takes place in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. It starts off that people go to Dora who is a retired schoolteacher who works on the station writing letters, so that she can write letters for them so that people around the country can receive them since the illiteracy level is so low in Brazil. She meets Josue and his mother in which they are attempting to write to Josue’s dad whom he never met. Josue at first acts like a pest which annoys Dora. The following day, Josue and his mother come back again to send a letter to her husband. Dora begins to write but Josue is not sold that Dora will mail the letter. He and his mother then leave the station, which then tragically ends with Josue’s mother getting hit by a bus leaving her to die. Josue is then left to be alone in which he spends the night at the station, alone and scared. The next day Dora notices that Josue spent the night at the station so she offers him food but he refuses because she always acted so mean to him and just in general. The safety patrol man of the station then talks to Dora, which ultimately causes her to take Josue home with her. Once she took him home he realized that most of the letters that Dora was supposed to mail out were still in her house, causing Josue to see the letter that she was supposed to send of his that his mother had asked her to write and send out. The next day Dora takes Josue to a “Family Shelter” in where they tell Dora that they will make sure Josue gets good foster parents in which they will most likely be in the U.S. or Europe. Dora receives compensation for bringing Josue to the home. When she gets home Dora buys a new tv that leads to her neighbor asking where she received the money for it. After lying where she got the money she told her neighbor that she had taken Josue to a home in where he was going to be with good foster parents. Her Neighbor then reveals to her that those are not foster homes but instead they kill children and sell their organs. Dora finally feels bad and takes Josue back from the home, in which they soon leave the town after they were threatened to get killed. From there Dora and Josue’s journey in finding his father begun. Throughout the experience Dora and Josue had their moments from wanting to kill each other to soon enough having a strong friendship. They eventually found the family of Josue and she leaves him there to stay with his brothers and she returns to Rio.

            The theme of the movie is based on the poor slums of Brazil in which they demonstrate how low the level of literacy in the country is and also how they really do kill kids to sell their organs. I personally found the film to be one of my favorites. I also almost shed a tear when Dora left Josue with his new family and she was returning to Rio as she’s writing a letter saying how much she grew to him. :’(