Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures

1942 in the middle of Northeastern Brazil, two very different men meet along the road: Johan, an aspirin salesman avoiding the German draft, and Ranulpho, a rural Brazilian seeking escape from the drought. Although their personalities and lives are worlds apart, the two men develop a deep friendship, as Johan, in an effort to provide Ranulpho with job skills, teaches Ranulpho to run the film projector, and drive a truck. In this deliberately-paced road film, Marcelo Gomes reminds us that war is as close as Johan’s radio, broadcasting its relentless warnings that all lives are changed when the world is in conflict. –The Global Initiative