Product Description

The Middle of the World is a road movie on bicycles. It is freely adapted from the true story of an unemployed truck driver who, with his wife and five children, pedals from Paraíba, in the poverty-stricken Northeast of Brazil, all the way to Rio de Janeiro looking for a job. Romão (the father) feels destined to earn 1000 reais (about 300 US$) a month a vast sum for Brazilian standards. On four bikes, the family goes through five states, knows solidarity and indifference, aggressiveness and cordiality. A 2000-mile odyssey through the hinterlands of Brazil all the way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's best-known postcard. The Middle of the World shows the quest for the dream of a decent life a story of dreams and hope.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34532 in DVD
• Published on: 2004
• Released on: 2005-01-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: Portuguese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

Customer Reviews

family road trip
Which is more important, the journey or the destination? Romao is an illiterate and unemployed man with a wife and five kids, but he believes in destiny. "My true destiny is on the road," he tells anyone who would stop him from taking his family of seven on a six-month, two thousand mile bicycle journey across the heart of Brazil to Rio de Janeiro. There, he believes, he will find work so that he can feed his family. People think he's crazy, of course, including his family. They panhandle, do odd jobs, sing songs at restaurants, meet people both evil and good, and sleep in abandoned buildings and rusted out buses. But they love each other deeply and experience many life lessons, especially the adolescent Antonio who is turning into a young man. This film, "based upon a true story," won at least five festival awards, all of them deserved in my opinion. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

Touching story, beautiful landscapes
If you are curious about Brasil as i am, you must listen to this movie. Road trip on bicycle from Paraiba state on nordeste Brasil until Rio de Janeiro. A family looking for a better life. Great views of the Brasil countryside, and costal areas. A simple but beautiful movie, no action but the same Brasil quality.

arid norttheast landscapes thro a bittersweet lens
Apart from being a good road film (landscapes, transience etc), the lead actors have nicely portrayed the machismo that rules most latin american and asian societies. good soundtrack, imagery, and having been in brasil recently, i was taken back there, to the endless horizons, red roads and dusty bus stations.
i'd buy it if i could afford the steep price.