Italo, the university guy was hidden in the former Motel flat. But nearing the end of the film, we found that Italo wasn't anymore there, instead Bia, Mauro's mother already was there brought by Schlomo.
Did you think that Schlomo made an agreement with the secret police changing Italo by Bia?
I´m not sure. But i must say that i thought about that. It´s hard to believe that Scholomo would such a thing, but, otherwise, how did he manage to miraculously come back from the interrogation with the boy´s mother?
shareIt's hard to believe that Scholomo would [do] such a thing, but, otherwise, how did he manage to miraculously come back the interrogation with the boy's mother?
Wow, The Swiss, that is quite an astute observation. We just came home from the movie and in our discussions over the last hour that had not occurred to us. That opens up all sorts of new angles from which to view the story and characters. Thank you.
shareI think this is a good question. My response is that Shlomo did not turn in Italo for Bia. First, we are shown that Italo tells Mauro immediately after the police take away Shlomo, "The game is over. I have to go on vacation too." (that is, disappear). To stay in Motel's apartment any longer would endanger himself, Mauro and Shlomo. I think we can assume that Italo leaves Motel's apartment immediately after we last see him.
Second, Italo is shown apparently helping Shlomo in his inquiries about Mauro's parents. Also, Shlomo almost certainly carries historical memories from Poland about the police looking for "wanted" people. To me, it is very unlikely that he would turn in Italo for the sake of Bia.
We are left with a mystery as to how Bia shows up at the end, and what relationship this may have had to Shlomo's arrest. The movie sees events through a child's eyes, and sometimes children never have enough information to understand important events.
Hmm...good points. I agree with Edwin that Shlomo would not have done this. However, I'm also a bit confused about Shlomo's interrogation that we see a brief scene of. Notice that the police say something like "So you're not related to the girl?" I wasn't sure what that meant, but I wonder if they were referring to Bia. My vague guess is this: 1) The police had apprehended Mauro's parents. 2) Shlomo was taken in because he had been seen around town talking with people such as Italo, and also because he had gone to Mauro's family's home, which may have been under surveillance. Notice that brief moment in the university when the camera rests on a man who seems to be watching Shlomo--I assumed that was a secret political policeman. 3) When the police found that Sholomo wasn't actually related to Mauro's family as they may have assumed (since he was taking care of Mauro), they let him go; and possibly the father convinced the police that his wife was not involved in his political activities and instead gave himself up.
I would like to know, though, whether the father would have been in prison for life or rather, executed. I assume the latter, but am not familiar with the state of the government at the time and what they did to dissidents. ?
I believe he was executed. That was what the government used to do.
shareI really got the feeling that Shlomo sold out Mauro's father. Shlomo wasn't a very sympathetic character to me at the end.
I assumed that his father was killed by the government. A quick cruise of wikipedia brought me to this "by the end of the dictatorship there were at least 339 documented cases government-sponsored political assassinations or disappearances. Countless more were questioned, tortured or jailed".
I definitely would be interested in a Brazilian or should I say Brasilian perspective on this.
To understand this particular part of the movie, you really should know better about the brasilian repression years. Shlomo didn´t sell Italo. Shlomo was arrested because was asking to many questions abouit Mauro´s parents and raised suspicions by the police (not secret police, by the way.... it´s awful to say, but the police could arrest anyone at that time "in the name of national security). When Shlomo was at the police department, the policeman ask him if he was related to the "woamn" (probably Mauro´s mother). Since Mauro´s father was killed and the mother was tortured and confessed you-don´t-know-what, she was released. Many people at that time passed through this via crucis. The "lucky" ones were "only" tortured. Other died in misterious ways and other disappeared and were never seen again. These procedures lasted till 1977/1978 when a military president, Geisel, begun to diminish the strenght of the tough part of the government, firing the generals and police guys involved in torture.
There is another brasilian movie "Pra Frente Brasil" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084529/) that shows a guy being tortured in 1970 by the time of the mexican world cup as well.
I´m brasilian, by the way, and loved the way Cao hamburguer shows this period.
According to the "procedures" of the time, in my view the father would have been tortured and murdered, whereas the mother survived torture. How she escaped or was freed is a mystery.
shareShe wasn't exactly freed guys, she was exiled. They did that to a lot of people, we don't know what they did so we can't really know why they killed one and kicked the other out of the country, it was most likely something against the dictatorship beliefs.
shareShe did not escape. The police knew about the grandfather's flat, the neighbour (Shlomo), etc. Also, at the time I never heard of any political prisoners having succeeded to escape, except the ones the military/police/political police were going to execute. This was called announced death. They would have the newspapers publishing the news about the escape of the prisoner they were going to kill. Then, this prisoner was taken away from his cell and would appear "dead while resisting re-capture".
They used to release people who, after being tortured, proved to be innocent. Notice that in the Motel's flat, when the boy enters taking by Shlomo, there is a doctor there. The mother was recovering from torture.
Some people were tortured to give info about other people who would have participated in any act against the dictatorship. Others were tortured to confess their direct participation. The ones who were proven to be culprit of such acts would be condemned to some time in prison, classified as normal criminals, not political prisoners. Many people died under torture, and others were killed at cold blood.
Most of the people who tried to organize a guerilla in a jungle place called Araguaia (google about it) were killed, either during fighting or, after capture, at cold blood and decapitated. A famous case is of Oswaldão, a black militant who was thrown from a helicopter and later decapitated. The military (Major Curió) who buried his body and head, refuses to say where they are.
In recent years some families of missing people all over the country managed to locate their remains, in common graves. Many are still missing.
So far, none of the torturers and killers has ever been punished. Some are still occupying official positions.
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