The abiding humanism we've come to expect from Walter Salles is abundantly present in "Linha de Passe," his luminous competition entry in this year's Cannes. Co-directed with Daniela Thomas, the film explores the Brazilian underclass through the lives of four brothers who live with their mother on the outskirts of teeming São Paulo. But though the family leads a hardscrabble life in an unforgiving milieu, "Linha" is no "City of God." The brothers may skirt violence and crime, yet they struggle to reinvent themselves, continuing to search, however misguidedly, for a way to rise above their circumstances.
One son (Vinícius de Oliveira from Salles's "Central Station," sole actor in a cast of non-pros) hopes to use soccer as his ticket out. A second braves the mockery of friends and family to embrace religion and assist a local pastor. Touchingly, the youngest boy, fathered by a black bus-driver, becomes obsessed with learning to drive a city bus. The matriarch — a sort of Latin Mother Courage — is middle-aged, worn, and, shockingly, pregnant, yet she manages to support the family as a housekeeper and hews to her own brand of morality.
Shot in a breathless quasi-documentary style and often indifferently lit, "Linha" alternates close-ups with rocketing rides down São Paulo's jammed roadways. There's a sometimes uneasy mix of lyricism — conveyed through the repeated motif of raised hands — and gritty realism. Unlikely to do the boffo business of "The Motorcycle Diaries," "Linha" is nonetheless an inspiriting installment in Salles's ongoing examination of Brazil.
Best Performance for an ActressSandra Corveloni dans / for LINHA DE PASSE de / by Walter SALLES, Daniela THOMAS
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