Behind the Sun (Abril Despedaçado) (Rental) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	88:12
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Walter Salles
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	José Dumont Rodrigo Santoro Rita Assemany Ravi Ramos Lacerda Luís Carlos Vasconcelos Flavia Marco Antonio
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	Rental	Music	Ed Cortês Antonio Pinto Beto Villares

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Italian German	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Set in Brazil, 1910, Abril Despedaçado, or Behind the Sun in English, is a simple story that focuses mainly on two brothers, Tonio and ‘the kid’, as his family calls him. Their brother Inacio has recently been killed at the hand of the family’s foes in the fight for ownership of land. The fight has been going on for generations, and will only end when there is no one left to kill.

    The beautiful but bleak scenery in this movie depicts the lives of the characters. ‘The kid’, and his brother Tonio, are worked hard by their father, and it leads to their craving for some adventure in their lives.

    Fate has it that adventure passes through in the shape of a woman who gives ‘the kid’ his first book. She is one of a two-person circus that has come to town. Tonio later takes his ‘kid’ brother to have a look at the show, and it is here ‘the kid’ is given a name – Pacu, meaning river fish. I won’t go any further in the plot, as it might go close to giving things away.

    Behind The Sun was nominated for a few awards, including Best Film not in the English Language at the BAFTAs, Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes, and the Golden Lion and Little Golden Lion (which it won) at the Venice Film Festival. Director Walter Salles (Central Station) has quite a beautiful looking film in Behind The Sun, which looks great on this DVD (more on that later). At times becoming poetic, Salles knows how to make things look good. The acting from the main cast is of a fairly high standard also, especially Tonio, Pacu and their family. On a whole, it was a satisfying experience, but it will probably not appeal to as wide an audience as some other recent foreign films such as Monsoon Wedding, or Amelie. I still recommend you check it out, as it is certainly a good film, it’s just not excellent.

Video

    The video transfer for Behind The Sun is quite excellent, falling just short of reference quality. Being a beautifully shot film, it looks fantastic on my widescreen TV.

    The film appears in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness is very strong, resulting in highly detailed landscapes. Shadow detail and black levels are spot-on, creating a beautiful contrast at times. There is a very slight amount of grain and low-level noise that is never distracting, and really complements the visuals more than destroying them.

    Colours were great for the most part, featuring lots of browns, oranges and yellows in the scenery, but in a few of the darker scenes they tended to become a bit muddy, which again kind of added to the visuals I guess.

    Artefacts were almost non-existent, with only the occasional film artefact such as dirt or specks, but they were very occasional, and never distracting.

    This is a single sided, single layered disc, so therefore there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The DVD’s audio transfer is fairly good, if a bit front-heavy.

    You can listen to the film in Portuguese, Italian or German, all presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Contrary to what the back of the box says, there is no English track. I listened to the Portuguese soundtrack - the film’s original language – for the entire film, and flicked over to the other two at times to compare. The 5.1 mixes were identical apart from their differing languages.

    Dialogue was always clear, and never too loud or distorted. There were no problems with audio sync on all three tracks.

    The film’s score from Ed Cortês, Antonio Pinto (II) and Beto Villares fared fairly well on the DVD, with a bit of support from all channels, including some bass. The score complements the film’s visuals and dramatic tone quite nicely.

    Surround channel usage was the main letdown on the soundtrack, as there were some missed opportunities for directional sound, such as voices or ambience. During a storm, some rain and thunder can be heard, but it certainly lacked the immersion I was expecting.

    The subwoofer was called into play a bit, but, like the surrounds, was unfortunately underused. This is a good but not fantastic sound mix that unfortunately does not fare as well as the beautiful video transfer the film received.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Theatrical Trailer – (1.34)

    The Region 4 disc for Behind The Sun misses out on some trailers for some other Miramax films.

    Abril Despedaçado, or Behind The Sun in English, tells a fairly basic story, along with some very nice visuals. It probably won’t appeal to a very wide audience, being a foreign film that relies on visuals to tell the story at times. It could be deemed as boring to those who stay clear of movies not in the English speaking language. Being a fan of foreign films, I enjoyed Behind The Sun, but would not class it as one of my favourites. Good, but not outstanding.

    The video transfer is quite outstanding, just falling short of perfect.

    The same cannot be said for the audio, but it was still more than satisfactory.

    The only extra is the film’s trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall