Behind The Sun review

Walter Salles made his international name in the film world with his 1998 work Central Station which was nominated both as Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and received a deserved nomination for his leading actress Fernanda Montenegro. His new work Behind the Sun is a dour tale of family feuding set in poverty-stricken Brazil at the turn of the century. While it doesn't have the impact of his breakout work, it is still an eminently watchable, beautifully photographed and often gripping piece.

The Breves are a family living hand-to-mouth off the meagre sustenance that their farm can provide. Dominated by a tyrannical father, theirs is a daily struggle of relentlessly hard labour. Their lives are changed forever, however, when the eldest son is killed in a feud with a neighbouring family. The local code of honour is called upon and a vendetta is announced. The son's death must be avenged and it falls upon the eldest in line, Tonio (Rodrigo Santoro) to murder his equal. Of course once he does so he becomes the next target: forced to wear a black armband and wait until the blood on his victim's shirt has turned from red to yellow.

The only ray of light in this bleak existence is the arrival of the circus in town. Passing through the Breves' land, all two of the circus performers present the younger son, Pacu (Ravi Lacerda) with a book of fairy tales. When Pacu informs Tonio of the fact, they sneak off to watch the circus in town and Tonio falls in love with Clara (Flavia Antonio) as she dances, eats fire and walks on stilts. How will their love endure with Tonio a marked man?

There is nothing necessarily original or innovative about this plot, but Salles imbues the film with a slow-burning energy that makes it extremely engaging. His regular cinematographer Walter Carvalho makes exceptional use of the locale and introduces a poignant beauty to the look of the film: Tonio's mad dash through a cornfield on the trail of his victim and Clara's mid-air rope tricks are two of the film's visual highlights.

All in all, another accomplished work from a director who is now becoming one of the world's most distinctive voices: it's another chapter in his series on how poverty brings out some of the more extraordinary human characteristics.