- In the hostile streets of the city of São Paulo, among walls, cars, trash and ruins, a boy runs. We don't know what he's running from. We only know that the boy is black and poor - which, nowadays, is enough to make him a victim of harassment. Just as, in another time and place, a Jewish surname was enough to send a man or woman to hell. The boy who runs sees images of this hell - the Nazi concentration camps - on TV screens that he crosses along the way. The images of the Holocaust are contrasted with more recent images of violence committed against poor children in Brazil. The persecuted and disoriented boy ends up by chance in a hall where people he doesn't know are singing in a language he doesn't know (Yiddish). Despite this, he feels welcomed, and little by little a smile lights up his face.—Eduardo Ramos Quirino
- The short "Something in Common" is a simple fable about solidarity and affection in the face of contemporary barbarism. In the hostile streets of the city of São Paulo, among walls, cars, trash and ruins, a boy runs. I don't know what he's running from. We only know that the boy is black and poor - which, nowadays, is enough to make him a victim of harassment. Just as, in another time and place, a Jewish surname was enough to send a man or woman to hell. The boy who runs sees images of this hell - the Nazi concentration camps - on the TV screens he passes along the way. The images of the Holocaust are contrasted with more recent images of violence committed against poor children in Brazil. The persecuted and disoriented boy ends up by chance in a hall where people he doesn't know are singing in a language he doesn't know (Yiddish). Despite this, he feels welcomed, and little by little a smile lights up his face. There is wordless communication between the Jewish lady who leads the choir and the black boy. Both are survivors. Over the final signs of the film, we hear the same song, "Dos Kelbl" ("The Calf"), in the boy's voice, in Portuguese. As we already suspected, it talks about brutality and survival. There is no more universal or more current theme. There will be those who criticize the simplicity of the concept of "Something in Common". But it is a committed film, which serves as a purely cinematic narrative, giving up dialogue, voiceover and explanatory texts to communicate its powerful message.
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