Central Station

Central Station is a 1998 film directed by Walter Salles. It is similar to a previous movie, The Motorcycle Diaries, in that it follows the characters over a formative journey. The film takes place in Brazil, opening in the largest train station in Rio de Janiero, the country's capital city. The film is character and scenery driven, immersing the viewer into Salles' world quickly, not only by the believable and extremely well-developed characters, but their surroundings, as well. From the beginnings of the film, the viewer is thrown into a world with bustling and fast-moving characters. Despite the general atmosphere of the busy Central Station, there are characters with which the audience must sympathize -- those illiterates for whom Dora writes letters.

The movie centers around two primary characters -- Dora, an older female woman who was once a teacher, and Josué, a young, recently orphaned boy. The pair both spend a majority of their time at Central do Brasil, the Central Station of Rio de Janiero. Dora, who is extremely poor and near homelessness, makes her living by writing letters for illiterate travelers. However, she does not mail these letters -- she keeps or destroys them. Josué is a boy who, until recently, had been living with his mother, Ana. However, she dies after being struck by a bus outside of the station; Josué is left orphaned, as he has never met his father. Despite this, Josué still yearns to meet and know his mysterious father figure.

Dora is presented at first as a harsh and unsympathetic figure; though she writes all sorts of letters, she does not mail them out, preferring instead to destroy them or keep them for herself. When Josué is at first abandoned, even, she does not want to help him and goes out of her way to make things more difficult for him; however, eventually she relents and takes him home with her, figuring the train station is no place for a young boy. Eventually, the pair depart on a journey to find Josué's rather. As the pair embark on this journey, there is mutual growth -- Josué learns more about his own father and his family, and develops relationships with his half-siblings; Dora rediscovers the parts of herself that had become hardened and unsympathetic as she learns to care about Josué.

One of the primary motifs of the film is faith -- not only is it shown symbolically and literally throughout the film, it is a driving force behind the characters themselves. Josué, as a young boy, still has plenty of faith left in the world -- although Dora is doubting of his father, he is unrelenting in his quest for the unknown man. Dora, as an older woman who has experienced the harshness of the world, has lost some of her humanity, becoming a callous and harsh person as a result of her experiences. As the pair embark on their journey, they share with one another their faith and their personalities, and each gains valuable experience and exposure from the other.