Starring Michel Joelsas and Germano Haiut. In Portuguese and Yiddish with English subtitles. Rating not available.

The already bewildering world of childhood is given an especially poignant setting in the Brazil of 1970, when national shame and pride met in unexpected ways.

Ten-year-old Mauro (winning newcomer Michel Joelsas) is a sensitive, soccer-mad boy. His middle-class world is suddenly disrupted when the military dictatorship cracks down on anyone with a mildly questioning mind, as is quietly implied in a tale that is far more personal than political.

After a tip-off, the lad’s nervously chain-smoking parents (Eduardo Moreira and Simone Spoladore) bundle him into the family van for a quick trip to Sí£o Paulo to stay with his aged grandpa (famous Brazilian actor Paulo Autran, who has since died) while they flee the country. But Mauro actually ends up on the doorstep of next-door neighbour Shlomo (wonderful Germano Haiut), a cranky, white-bearded bachelor with no interest in children—or even in the World Cup and Brazil’s Pelé-led team, the stars of that unusual summer.

We’ve all seen such odd-couple stories; the Czech-made Kolya comes quickly to mind. But The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is not a sentimental character study. Although the two strays do gradually come to appreciate each other, even as the frightened boy waits for mom and dad, the low-key film is far more interested in daily life as found in their mostly Jewish neighbourhood.

Of particular note is Mauro’s amusing connection with a quirky neighbour girl (big-eyed Daniela Piepszyk), whose unbeatable rival is a sweet, sexy waitress (Liliana Castro) at the diner where locals gather to noisily watch the soccer finals.

The film’s director, Cao Hamburger, was previously known as the maker of animated shorts and TV shows aimed at kids. Here, working with four other writers (although dialogue is sparse), he has delivered a lovingly crafted and slightly yellowed postcard from another era, melding amateur actors and pros to bring us equal amounts of humour, heartbreak, and gentle wisdom. All our parents eventually go “on vacation”, and this surprisingly easygoing effort contemplates how we deal with that, long before we’re ready. Oh, and in case you don’t remember, Brazil won!