I brought a scene from a brazilian movie called Central do Brasil (Central Station)

from 1998. The director is Walter Salles. The protagonist is played by Fernanda
Montenegro, our Maryl Streep. The movie received some awards around the world
including the Golden Bear here in Berlin and it was nominated for the Oscar in the
categories of best international movie and best actress.

The plot. A retired Portuguese teacher (Dora) writes letters on a train station for
illiterate people to make ends meet. She has a very flawed character and she rarely
sends those letters to their destinies. A woman (Ana) accompanied by her son (Josué)
dictates a letter to her ex partner and father of Josué, saying that Josué would love to
meet his father. Next day she comes back to Dora and dictates a second letter to
Josué’s father and she dies shortly after( and that is the scene we are going to watch).

The first shots are all medium close up, alternating from showing Josué and his
mother Ana to showing Dora. The blurred background and the background noises are
there to remind us we are in a train station but the focus is in the interaction of these
three characters and their personalities, specially Josué’s and Dora’s, so as to set the
tone of their relationship that is going to develop throughout the movie. Dora is
shown once more as this non empathetic character, with little patience and a bit of
arrogance. The kid Josué also exhibits his strong character. He gets annoyed when
Dora corrects the Portuguese of his mother, he is suspicious about the Dora, he thinks
that she is not going to send the letter.

Here we see Josué violently pressing his top against Dora’s writing table. Later we
find out that his father is a carpenter and that he made that top himself to his son.
Dora is reluctant to write those letters to Josué’s father cause he is an alcoholic and in
her opinion he has probably already beaten that woman and he is likely to beat the
boy too. So when Josué damages the table with the top, it is like he is imposing the
presence of his father there. Because he really wants to meet him. And here Dora
takes the top from him and puts aside, in an attempt to correct Josué’s misbehavior
and symbolically neglecting Josué’s father. Josué takes the top again and hits the
table with it. Dora grabs the top again and throws it to the ground. It is all a
symbolism of imposing the father’s presence and rejecting the father’s presence. And
also a demonstration of the conflict between these two strong personalities.

Here, when Josué’s mother is looking inside her purse for a picture of her son to add
to the letter she ends up leaving a handkerchief on top of Dora’s table.
Then they leave Dora and go away. We have a close up on the boy’s beloved
possession: the top made by his father. He is playing with it. They are going to cross
the street. We see the traffic sign becoming red for cars. Ana asks Josué to take her
hand so they can cross the street. We have the focus on Josue’s hand holding the top.
A stranger bumps into him and he drops his top which rolls away, the camera foloows
the top. Josué releases his mother’s hand to go after his top. As he grabs it, the traffic
light opens for cars, and Ana is in the middle of the road looking for her son.
We have some close ups on Josué’s and Ana’s faces and then we have a full shot of a
bus incoming to show the imminent threat. Close up on Ana’s mouth to show her
surprise, close up on the bus’s wheels to show the impending impact. Close on Ana’a
eyes to show her terror. We have a medium close up on the bottom of the bus, which
is soon to be on top of Ana. Here the screen is almost all black to show the bus
overcoming Ana and the tragedy. The low angle to show us the perspective of the
victim.

And then we see Dora’s surprised reaction about all the commotion outside the
station.
We have a full shot of the bus from Dora’s perpective.
Close up on Josué’s face taking in what has just happened.
Close up on the religious man and his reaction to the accident. Close up on this guy
who informs Dora that the woman has died.
Close up on part of the body with blood.
Close up on the handkerchief that had been left by the now dead woman on Dora’s
table. The cloth is blown out of the table and falls on the floor as a symbolism to
Ana’s death.
Medium close up on Josué who tries to approach this mother body, but is held by
people at the scene.
Close one Dora picking up the handkerchief from the floor as a symbolism for the
fact that she is soon to pick up the role of mother to Josué.