Top 250 Challenge: 244

Central Do Brazil (1998)
Number 241 on IMDb's Top 250

Dora, a dour old woman, works at a Rio de Janeiro central station, writing letters for customers and mailing them. She hates customers and calls them 'trash'. Josue is a 9-year-old boy who never met his father. His mother is sending letters to his father through Dora. When she dies in a car accident, Dora takes Josue and takes a trip with him to find his father. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: When Fernanda Montenegro (Dora) set up her table at Central Station, real people approached her to write letters for them. Some of these real talks were incorporated by director Walter Salles and appear in the movie. Vinicius de Oliveira, a shoeshine boy, beat out more than 1,500 other young actors for the role of Josue. Central do Brazil is the name of Rio de Janeiro's Central Station.

This is a nice little tail of an emotional journey for Dora, who starts out a little bitter, she makes fun of the people she writes letters for and arbitrarily decides which ones she will send and which ones she tears up. When Josue's mother is hit by a bus, she decides to help herself to some money. She sells Josue to a "private adoption agency" for $1000, but her conscience gets the better of her and she rescues him and then takes him across the country to find his father. By the end of the movie, she isn't bitter any more. Montenegro was very impressive as Dora.

Next Up: Ikiru (To Live), the last Akira Kurasawa film on the list, The story of a dying petty bureaucrat in 1950's Japan (no really)