Behind The Sun

A darkly brooding vision of the timelessness of vengeance
The story in this film is simple: blood for blood feuding between two families in the backlands of Brazil. If left at that, this would be a conceptually boring movie, one done hundreds of times in various locations for varying Hollywood budgets. The glory of BEHIND THE SUN is in the presentation and transformation of a familiar precis into a visually stunning prolonged motion painting. Director Salles has assembled a cast of beautiful actors, minimized the Portuguese dialog so that the visuals may convey the text almost solo, and has added appropriations from other art forms to make this a memorable film. The only characters outside the feuding families are a traveling troupe of 'clowns' or a circus consisting of an older man and his senusously beautiful stepdaughter. This nod to the "I PAGLIACCI" opera invests intrigue and introduces the concept of the redeeming force of love into this otherwise blighted life story of a young man doomed to die for family honor. The photography...

A time and a place and a cruel and barbaric code of honor
This 2001 Brazilian film is one of the saddest I've ever seen. It's set in 1910 in the cane fields of Brazil. There are two families who live on adjourning land who are part of a blood feud that has gone back so far in time that nobody remembers the details.

The story unfolds through the point of view of a 10-year old boy. He is the youngest of three sons. His oldest brother has been killed a month before and his bloodstained shirt is drying in the sun. Now that the blood has turned yellow, it is time to revenge his death. This task falls to his beloved 20-year old brother Tonio, who, after a heartbreaking chase, murders a son of the rival family.

Now, we all know that Tonio will be murdered just as his rival was murdered. And we know he, too, has a month to live while the bloody shirt of his opponent dries in the sun. A lot happens though during this month though. A traveling circus passes by and Tonio falls in love with a young fire-eating performer and wants to stop...

A bleak story told in an austere place
BEHIND THE SUN, with English subtitles for Portuguese dialogue, is a Brazilian version of the Hatfield-McCoy feud and set in 1910. The Breves family - husband, wife, and two sons - are hardscrabble sugar cane farmers. We don't really know what the Ferreira family does - perhaps they're ranchers. Both clans have waged a blood feud for generations over a wretched piece of land better bulldozed flat for a shopping mall. Considering the endless cycle of an eye for an eye, will Tonio, the oldest Breves son, live long enough to venture beyond his family's land and experience love before the bloodstains on that Ferreira shirt turn from red to yellow in the wind and sun?

BEHIND THE SUN showcases actors that Americans have likely never seen before (and may never see again), but they're all excellent: José Dumont as Tonio's father, Rita Assemany as his mother, Ravi Lacerda as his young brother ("The Kid"), Flavia Antonio as bewitching Clara of the traveling carnival, and Rodrigo...

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