Central Station (film)

Central Station (Portuguese: Central do Brasil) is a 1998 Brazilian–French drama film set in Brazil. It tells the story of a young boy's friendship with a jaded middle-aged woman. The film was adapted by João Emanuel Carneiro and Marcos Bernstein from a story by Walter Salles, who directed it. It features Fernanda Montenegro and Vinícius de Oliveira in the major roles. The film's title in Portuguese is the name of Rio de Janeiro's main railway station. Montenegro's performance earned her critical acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination, becoming the first Latin American actress to be nominated in that category. The film itself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Plot

Dora is a retired schoolteacher who has become embittered. She works at Rio de Janeiro's Central Station, writing letters for illiterate customers, in order to make ends meet. She can be impatient with her customers and sometimes does not mail the letters she writes, putting them in a drawer or even tearing them up. Josué is a poor 9-year-old boy who has never met his father, but hopes to do so. His mother sends letters to his father through Dora, saying that she hopes to reunite with him soon, but when she is killed in a bus accident just outside the train station, the boy is left homeless. Dora takes him in and traffics him to a corrupt couple, but she is made to feel guilty by her neighbor and friend Irene and later steals him back.