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Behind the sun (Abril despedaçado)

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

April 1910 - in the desert landscape of the Brazilian badlands, a bloodstained shirt blows in the wind. Tonho (Rodrigo Santoro), the middle son of the Breves family, is ordered by his father (José Dumont) to avenge the death of his older brother, the victim of an age-old feud between families over the ownership of the land.

If he carries out his mission, Tonho knows that his life will be divided in two: the 20 years he has already lived, and the short time he has left to live. He will then probably be killed by a member of the rival family, as dictated by the code of vengeance of the region. Distressed by prospect of death and urged on by his younger brother Pacu (Ravi Ramos Lacerda), Tonho begins to question the logic of the tradition of violence.

This is when two performers in a little travelling circus cross his path...

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film Brazil drama 1910 revenge blood feud circus Portuguese

Persons of interest

Rodrigo Santoro .... Tonho
José Dumont .... Tonho's father
Rita Assemany .... Tonho's mother
Ravi Ramos Lacerda .... Pacu
Luís Carlos Vasconcelos .... Salustiano
Flavia Marco Antonio .... Clara
Othon Bastos .... Mr Lourenco
Ismaïl Kadaré .... Author
Karim Ainouz .... Screenwriter
Sérgio Machado .... Screenwriter
Walter Salles .... Screenwriter
Walter Salles .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Behind the sun official movie site
Behind the sun QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) 2001: Nominated: Best non-English film
Venice Film Festival 2001: World première, youth jury prize

NB: Portuguese language dialogue with English language subtitles
Studios and distributors:

Buena Vista International

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Behind the sun is one of those wonderful art-house films that is full of evocative imagery, intense passions, human drama and sexy actors (not that we critics judge a film by how much we want to root the star but Rodrigo Santoro and Flavia Marco Antonio are both bonfires of burning sexuality).

The tragedy in this film is enormous even though the characters are normal-sized, that's a big bucket of kudos to the writers. Some films use grandeur to make the story seem bigger (Titanic is one example that springs to mind) but Behind the sun is so small it's almost minuscule. Seven or eight speaking characters, three families (most of whom are peasants) and not a special effect in sight (unless you count a bit of coloured gel over the lens as a special effect), yet it still manages to portray all the richness of human existence in a tale that is as old as time.

If you like your coffee bitter, sweet and dark, you'll like Behind the sun.