In Competition: “Linha De Passe” by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas

Linha De Passe, the second film by Walter Salles to compete for a Palme d’Or, after 2004’s Motorcycle Diaries, is about four brothers and their mother attempting to reinvent their lives in São Paulo. One is seeking his father; the second is an aspiring pro soccer player; the third embraces the priesthood; and the fourth is trying as well as he can to provide for the child he fathered. Meanwhile, their mother is awaiting a new baby.

The Brazilian director, who was a member of the Short Film Jury in 1999 and the Official Selection Jury in 2002, enlarges on the themes developed in his latest film: “In Linha De Passe, as in Foreign Land, youth is at the center of the story. In a country with soaring unemployment rates, soccer, religion, or crime forge possible escape routes. Many youngsters flirt with criminality, but the vast majority refuses to follow this path. They are rarely the subject of films. This thematic unbalance has shaped a biased impression of our reality.
We wanted to follow another route: a film where people could – for once – find a way out; where the conflict would be internal, related to questions of race and the absence of a family structure. But we did not avoid the contemplation of violence in our society. The characters in Linha De Passe engage this question in different ways.”