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The Middle of the World

Original title: O Caminho das Nuvens
  • 2003
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 25m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
1.3K
YOUR RATING
The Middle of the World (2003)
Trailer for The Middle of the World
Play trailer2:21
1 Video
12 Photos
DramaRomance

A man and his family travel 3200km (1984 miles) by bicycle, from the State of Paraíba to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in search of a job.A man and his family travel 3200km (1984 miles) by bicycle, from the State of Paraíba to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in search of a job.A man and his family travel 3200km (1984 miles) by bicycle, from the State of Paraíba to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in search of a job.

  • Director
    • Vicente Amorim
  • Writer
    • David França Mendes
  • Stars
    • Wagner Moura
    • Cláudia Abreu
    • Ravi Ramos Lacerda
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    1.3K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Vicente Amorim
    • Writer
      • David França Mendes
    • Stars
      • Wagner Moura
      • Cláudia Abreu
      • Ravi Ramos Lacerda
    • 17User reviews
    • 9Critic reviews
    • 32Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 9 nominations total

    Videos1

    The Middle of the World
    Trailer 2:21
    The Middle of the World

    Photos12

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    Top cast33

    Edit
    Wagner Moura
    Wagner Moura
    • Romão
    Cláudia Abreu
    • Rose
    Ravi Ramos Lacerda
    Ravi Ramos Lacerda
    • Antônio
    Manoel Sebastião Alves Filho
    • Rodney
    • (as Manoel Sebastião)
    Felipe Newton Silva Rodrigues
    • Clévis
    • (as Felipe Newton)
    Cícera Cristina Almino de Lima
    • Suelena
    • (as Cristina de Lima)
    Cícero Wesley A. Ferreira
    • Cícero
    • (as Cicero Wallyson e Ciceero Wesley)
    Claudio Jaborandy
    Claudio Jaborandy
    • Gideão
    Sidney Magal
    Sidney Magal
    • Panamá
    Franciolli Luciano
    • Callado
    Carol Castro
    Carol Castro
    • Sereia
    Caco Monteiro
    • Severino
    Laís Corrêa
    • Jurema
    Fábio Lago
    Fábio Lago
    • Neguiça
    Alexandre Zacchia
    • Porfirio
    • (as Alexandre Zachia)
    Augusto Madeira
    Augusto Madeira
    • Motorista Carioca
    Marcello Gonçalves
    • Mau-Elemento
    Lúcio Leonn
    • Brutamontes 1
    • Director
      • Vicente Amorim
    • Writer
      • David França Mendes
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews17

    6.51.2K
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    10

    Featured reviews

    7murphy-50

    realistic family drama

    I've lived in Northeast Brazil, where this movie is set. Viewers get a realistic picture of small-town life, including devotion to Padre Cicero, a priest who died in 1934, in Juazeiro do Norte, Ceara. It shows the importance of the music of Roberto Carlos, the romantic singer who is Brazil's highest-selling recording artist, in the characters' lives. I've known people who have made similar journeys, and seen their devotion to their children and their struggle to preserve their dignity, just like the characters in this movie.

    It's more low-key than ""Bye Bye Brasil," "Central Station," "O Auto da Compadecida," and "Eu, Tu, Eles" (Me, You, Them). It's most similar in tone to "Central Station."
    10annepg

    Definitely one of the best Brazilian movies ever.

    Rarely does one have the opportunity to see such a unique, honest and beautiful movie, specially when it comes to dealing with such difficult issues such as poverty, a family's struggle to stick together and overcome all sorts of misadventures. This is a beautifully shot road movie on bicycles - based on a true story - that can be compared to The Bicycle Theif, and another Brazilian master piece by Nelson Pereira dos Santos: Vidas Secas (Barren Lives, is the English title) (based on a novel). Everyone should get to see this movie.
    9juanmro-1

    When being poor is not a big drama, it's life

    May be the summary say it all but the movie it's so great that I'm gonna give interested people more info about it. Is the first time in the latinamerican movie history when a director make a movie about being poor is not a terrible drama, it's just life, nothing more and nothing less. You can watch how is it the Latin American way to live the poverty: It's a daily drama that everybody lives each day of their life and that make's life less dramatic. In the movie you can found a typical family and the play of each character are the same in every place in the world without differences of social class. In the film you can make a road-trip from the north to the south of Brazil but without the typical beach and sun scenery. No, here it is another part of Brazil, that part where the real people live and tourism don't show. Incredible characters and fantastic places.
    5kemmerle-919-123670

    Poor family migrates from northwest Brazil to Rio

    This is the (based on a true) story of a peasant family from northwest Brazil that migrates to Rio. They travel not how people usually do it, but as a family, on bicycles. Five children, mom and Dad, on five bicycles. Six months it takes them, and 3000 kilometers.

    It's a wonderful premise for a movie, and I was disposed to like it. I've liked other films about NE Brazil. Vidas Secas by Nelson Pereira dos Santos; Me, You, Them by Andrucha Waddington; Central Station by Walter Salles. I'd like to take another look at the Glauber Rocha films if they ever become available.

    But this well intentioned film just didn't make it for me. The actors were too pretty, too handsome, their teeth too perfect and white, their bodies conditioned in a gym, their faces unburnt by a lifetime in the sun. They were too clearly actors in a created scene that was too foreign to them. They just failed to meaningfully embody their characters. It felt like they were following a recipe for acting: recite lines, add so much of this or that emotion, make meaningful glances, and voila, soufflé.

    In general, the "acted" scenes filmed in a studio didn't' feel right. They felt more like a mediocre made-for-TV telenovela.

    The filmmakers missed the real grit of the sturm und drang of surviving on the road by your wits and your faith. Very few close-ups. The bicycles, for example: we never saw a greasy hand or a wrench or a spoke. The rich texture of the side of the road was strangely missing, such as the people who make huge pots of tripe and rice and beans and sell it to the truck drivers, half the price of restaurant food.

    But the gravest mistake was the filmmakers attempt to make the picaresque, true story of a migration/pilgrimage fit into ready-made story lines, including one especially lame subplot about the coming-of-age of the oldest boy, Antonio, his conflict with the father. The eventual resolution of the conflict between father and son was downright bathetic. Saccharin-sweet sentimentality.

    The scenes of Brazil were great. The roads, the berm, the sand, the daub and wattle, the life-beside-the-flow of the river/road, the landscape, the cactus, the hot dreamy little towns and villages with their brick streets and bright colors. But still, a little too pretty. I know the scene. I lived in rural northwest Brazil for 4 years and did 80,000 kilometers of traveling in Bahia. I lived in Feira de Santana for a few months, and that city is part of the movie. I love that part of the country and its people. I liked the scenes of Juazeiro.

    One scene that totally failed for me was the whole "Panama" episode. It felt like it was written into the script.

    The script as a whole was predictable. The attempts at character development seemed to come from the writing. Each time our travelers learn a new lesson, the filmmakers make them stand up and announce it.

    The film would have worked better in documentary style, like say Slumdog Millionaire. Imagine if the filmmakers had paused a little more to explore the details of the roadside in northeast Brazil?
    10lexicon8

    A magical and heart-warming voyage through the heart of Brazil.

    I loved this movie!

    It is so refreshing to watch a non-pretentious film that illustrates the realities of poverty and the search for happiness without making you want to jump out of the nearest window!

    Normally, Latin American directors tend to emphasize and exoticize poverty-stricken towns and characters by dwelling on the families' strife and hardship in order to extract superficial emotion from the spectator. Mr. Amorim, however, deftly maneuvers around these themes with a sincere and compassionate and humanistic eye.

    "O Caminho das Nuvens" is a funny and modern road-movie that takes you where you want to go...places you may have been before, but may not have seen in such a fresh and authentic way. Muito bom.

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    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Carol Castro's debut.
    • Connections
      Referenced in A Dona da História (2004)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 12, 2003 (Brazil)
    • Country of origin
      • Brazil
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • Portuguese
      • Spanish
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The Path of the Clouds
    • Filming locations
      • Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, Brazil
    • Production companies
      • Luiz Carlos Barreto Produções Cinematográficas
      • Filmes do Equador
      • Miravista
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $13,278
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 25m(85 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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