Behind the Sun

In the rural badlands of north-eastern Brazil in April 1910, two farming families have carried on a long-running feud over land, a dispute settled through blood. Tonho, a young man of about twenty, is ordered by his father to kill a member of the rival family to avenge his older brother's death. He understands that carrying out the act will mark him for retaliation in turn. His younger brother Pacu urges him to reject the cycle, and the arrival of a small travelling circus gives Tonho a view of a different kind of life.

Walter Salles directed the film, working from a screenplay he wrote with Karim Aïnouz and Sérgio Machado. It followed his Central Station, released in 1998, and preceded The Motorcycle Diaries and Dark Water. Rodrigo Santoro plays Tonho, with José Dumont and Rita Assemany as his parents, Ravi Ramos Lacerda as Pacu, and Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos and Flavia Marco Antonio as members of the circus. The production was a Brazilian, French and Swiss effort.

Behind the Sun drew solid audience responses, with an IMDb rating of 7.6 from around 7,800 votes and a TMDB rating of 7.4 from 135 votes. A critics' rating of 6.9 from 46 reviews places it somewhat below the audience scores, though still positive overall.