Produced by Videofilmes
Co-Production by Superfilmes
World Sales: Sony Picture Classics
The film centers on a young boy (Vinicius de Oliveira) whose mother is killed in front of Rio de Janeiro's Central Station. Homeless and with nowhere to run, he is reluctantly befriended by a lonely and cynical woman (Montenegro). Resisting her initial impulse to make a quick profit off the child, she commits to returning him to his father in Brazil's remote Northeast. As buses and trucks carry the motley pair through the increasingly unfamiliar terrain, they defy their initial aversion to each other, journeying closer together and deeper inside themselves. Set against an epic backdrop of vast, majestic landscapes, the trip becomes a quest for their own identities: one boy's search for his father; and one woman's search for her heart.
Walter Salles was born in Rio de Janeiro in April 12th, 1956. He graduated in Economics at PUC though never became a professional. In 1979 he inrolled in a visual communication course in Southern California and went into advertising.
Salles has produced series and TV shows since 1983 such as "Conexão Internacional". In 1991 he made his first feature film, A Grande Arte, based on the novel written by Ruben Fonseca. He directed Terra Estrangeira in 1995, a film awarded in Bazil, France, Belgium, United States and Uruguay. But it was Central Station, in 1998, that gave him the international recognition he has today. It won the Silver Bear in Berlin for Best Actress, Fernanda Montenegro, who was also nominated for the Academy Awards as Best Actress in 1999.
In 2001 his film Abril Despedaçado was nominated for the Gonden Globe Awards at the Best Foreign Film category. His next film Diários de Motocicleta (2004) about Che Guevara's route through Latin America was also a sucsess abroad. In 2005 he premiered his first film in English, Black Water.
In 2012 he premiered the film On the Road, a Jack Kerouac's adaptation by José Rivera.
Fernanda Montenegro
Marilia Pera
Vinicius De Oliveira
Othon Bastos
Soia Lira
Antonella Rendina
Director
Walter Salles Jr.
Producer
Martine de Clermont-Tonnerre and Arthur Cohn
Writters
João Emanuel Carneiro, Marcos Bernstein and Walter Salles
Compositor
Antonio Pinto
Cinematography
Walter Carvalho Editor Isabelle Rathery and Felipe Lacerda
Productor
VideoFilmes
Co-Production
SuperFilmes
When Walter Salles' "Central Station" was screened for the first time at Sundance Film Festival, crowds embraced the film with tears, applauses and joy. A month later, it took the Berlin Film Festival by storm, winning the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Fernanda Montenegro.
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