In cinema, sometimes history is best told not with newsreel montages or copious datelines attached to significant scenes but through the eyes of a single individual, even if that person is a child with very little comprehension of the reality that surrounds him. “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation,” Brazil’s official entry for the 2008 Academy Awards, uses this simple premise to wonderful effect, although it occasionally oversimplifies this point of view to the brink of mundanity.

Set in Brazil in 1970, “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation” follows a young boy, Mauro (Michel Joelsas), after his parents hastily drop him off at the home of his grandfather, an elderly Jew who lives in the Jewish district of Sao Paulo. His parents tell their son they’re “going on a vacation,” which in this context means they’re fleeing political unrest while providing their son safekeeping with a distant relative. Mauro, though, actually ends up in the hands of his grandfather’s neighbor, Shlomo (Germano Haiut, “Perfumed Ball”), a surprised but warm-hearted old man with a penchant for grumbling in Yiddish every time Mauro does something boyish that Shlomo doesn’t understand.

This time was a turbulent year in Brazil, fraught with incongruous national sentiments. On the verge of dictatorship, the political scene in the film is rife with anxiety. Meanwhile, Brazilians were excitedly anticipating a victorious year as their soccer team made its way to the World Cup, led by the notorious Pele.

And this is as historically specific as director Cao Hamburger cleverly chooses to make it. Just as Mauro remains blissfully ignorant to everything outside of his newfound home that is unrelated to his passion for soccer, the audience too is only invited to catch small glimpses of the unruly political atmosphere surrounding him. But, through the camaraderie and hope inspired by Brazil’s upcoming participation in the World Cup, Mauro remains optimistic and aloof, while the other characters are left mostly to admire the child’s selective perception of his surroundings as they attempt to deal with the up-and-coming dictatorship’s impact on their own lives.

As brilliant as limiting the story to Mauro’s point of view may be, the concept is arguably over-employed, occasionally resulting in scenes delivered too lackadaisically for their obviously significant content. A brutal bust of a students’ political organization, for instance, somehow makes no impact on Mauro and consequently fails to reverberate with the viewer, despite the bleeding head of one of Mauro’s newfound friends and the incarceration of another.

The second flaw with this method of storytelling is that too much responsibility is left on Joelsas’ shoulders. Child protagonists are always a risk in terms of acting, and, while Joelsas succeeds in inciting a few laughs, his inability to emote warrants the sympathy necessary for the film to fully succeed.

But where Joelsas lets down, others pick up. An array of supporting characters provide for a variety of unique interactions with Mauro, but Haiut especially succeeds, perfectly portraying the Jewish grandfather-figure. He seems to encapsulate the collective character of the entire Jewish barrio and is both gratifying in his humorous fits of confusion and touching when he makes his own attempts to reach out to the troubled Mauro.

The interactions between Shlomo and Mauro, with some further touches to the screenplay, could make a stand-alone film themselves. The two face so many barriers in their relationship — such as religion and decades of age difference — that merely observing the two as they attempt to connect to each other provides enough dramatic conflict to sustain the film. The problem, though, is that Shlomo occasionally disappears for days at a time while working to solve Mauro’s problems, and, because we are trapped in Mauro’s perspective, the story slows and falters during these instances.

The subtle conflicts between other characters also add dimension to this multi-faceted film. The various ethnic groups of the barrio, from Jewish to Italian to Brazilian, are always eager to overcome their differences when faced with something larger. But it isn’t the impending dictatorship that unites the many characters — it’s always the Brazilian soccer team’s journey to the World Cup.

While the characters’ interesting stories and their ability to come together despite their basic differences is an uplifting notion, many of the other themes here are less than encouraging. At its heart, “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation” is a story not so much about a particular historical event, but about character and perspective. Even if it is drawn out at times, it is an ingenious vehicle for storytelling from which Hollywood could learn a thing or two.

“The Year My Parents Went on Vacation” opens today at Sundance Cinemas in Madison.

3 1/2 stars out of 5