Did you people see the same film I saw?

A Masterpiece!

A lot of fun.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Brazil, 1910, and out of the stark, barren land, director Salles has brilliantly composed a visual poem in various shades of amber, ochre, and deep gold, the beauty of location composition often at odds with the stark story of revenge between families, a seemingly unending cycle of violent death unrelieved for peasant families.Moments of magic do happen, now and then, with visits from a traveling circus, from vivid pictures in a child's story book, from ascents into the skies from swings. The memorable faces of largely unknown actors will haunt you after the film ends; this is no film filled with special effects or easily-explained motivations, but a mythic tale with repercussive shocks; after one viewing with subtitles, one could turn them off and revel in the visuals, the music, and the strange, tragic finale.

I bought this film by chance to give myself a shot of culture, and wasn't really expecting it to live up to much. I had never heard of it before, but I liked the cover and the story sounded OK. However, I was in for a real treat. Beautifully shot against Brazilian landscapes and told through a cast of tremendously talented actors, especially, and most surprisingly, Rodrigo Santoro, of Love Actually fame. However, it is the little boy who really steals the show. He is fantastic and will have you reaching for the Kleenex. The beautifully told relationships between the families and the drama of the feuds just makes this film one of the best foreign films ever, and, if you can be bothered to read subtitled films, this is one you won't regret getting. It is really that good, and the cinematography is astounding. Sorry to keep talking in hyperbole, but it really is phenomenal.

From award winning director Walter Salles, who made both Motorcycle Diaries and Central Station, comes another fine film that again helps to put Brasil, a country almost the size of the whole of the USA, on the 'map' so to speak. This beautiful but desolate tale is set in Bahia where feuding families follow an 'honorable' eye for an eye code over their land. The men find their honour rests in an endless cycle of muted revenge, whilst the two main female characters, from a position of inferior authority, attempt to save the odd life. We see the farmers processing sugar cane, an arduous task, the scarcity in their lives, and the beautiful landscape that barely supports survival. The story is told from the point of view of a child whose parents haven't even bothered naming. Immaculate acting and beautiful direction makes the simple story constantly captivating - an absolute gem.

Utter brilliance, the most beautiful movie I've seen since Amelie from Montmartre. How this movie is fairly unknown is a mystery to me.I cried repeatedly through the latter half of the movie. Not from the sadness in the story, but from the beauty of it. Not many movies leave such marks, me and the person I watched it with talked about it for hours after seeing it.I'm shocked to see this movie "only" got 7.5 here on IMDB. It deserves WAAY more. I would expect it to be around the 8.5 mark. 10/10 from me though, I'm blown away.