Hopefuls

Original title: Aspirantes

Directed by Ives Rosenfeld

Junior, as he’s known, since he’s essentially still a child, seems to be having a tough time getting on in life. He shares cheap lodgings with another fellow and earns money doing strenuous night shifts at a warehouse. It’s no surprise that he lives for football and desperately hangs onto the dream of perhaps every Brazilian kid – to become a famous player. Although he trains hard with his amateur team, he’s not one of the best. He won’t admit to the mounting jealousy he feels as he watches his talented friend doing extremely well on the pitch. What’s more, his prospects don’t look so rosy now that his young girlfriend Carine is pregnant, and he also has to deal with her dominant mother poking her nose in...