The Year My Parents Went on Vacation 2008

The narrative unfolds over several months in 1970 in São Paulo, where a 12-year-old boy named Mauro faces the abrupt absence of his young parents, Bia and Daniel Stein, who are political activists fleeing from a repressive military regime that brutally suppresses leftist movements across Brazil. Amidst an atmosphere steeped in fear and political unrest, excitement brews for the upcoming World Cup in Mexico, which is set to be the first ever televised live via satellite.

With no option left to care for their son, the Steins journey from Belo Horizonte to São Paulo to leave Mauro with his grandfather, Mótel, a barber. They tell him that it’s just a vacation, promising to return in time for the World Cup matches. However, fate intervenes tragically when Mótel passes away on the very day Mauro arrives, leaving him alone and bewildered in Bom Retiro, a working-class neighborhood predominantly inhabited by Jewish families, many of whom speak Yiddish, a language unfamiliar to him. Drawing support from the tight-knit community, Shlomo, an elderly neighbor and a friend of Mauro’s grandfather, steps in to care for the boy.

Passionate about football, Mauro dreams of becoming a goalkeeper. As he settles in, he befriends other children from the neighborhood and encounters an array of vibrant characters such as Hanna, a girl his age, and Ítalo, a politically engaged student from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. He also meets Irene, a stunning bartender, and her boyfriend, a talented mulatto goalkeeper from a local team, alongside the local rabbi and other Jewish elders as well as Italian immigrants.

To Mauro’s profound disappointment, neither of his parents appears as promised for the World Cup, nor do they send any communication. Overwhelmed with anxiety for the boy, Shlomo takes it upon himself to investigate their whereabouts and, in a twist of fate, finds himself arrested by the political police for his involvement. His persistence pays off as he manages to secure the release of Mauro’s mother, who returns severely ill from her imprisonment. Their reunion unfolds on the same day that Brazil triumphs in the World Cup final. Meanwhile, Mauro’s father remains missing, a victim of the regime’s brutality.

In the film’s poignant conclusion, Mauro bids farewell to his newfound friends as he and his mother prepare to leave Bom Retiro and embark on a journey into exile.