Fernanda Montenegro (Dora) - Considered by many to be Brazil's greatest actress, Fernanda Montenegro (Dora) has acted in more than fifty plays (including works by O'Neill, Durenmatt and Fassbinder) and many feature films. In 1970, Montenegro received the Best Actress Award at the Moscow Film Festival for her role in Paulo Porto's "Em Família" (which also received the "Best Film" Award at Moscow). She later won the Best Actress Award at Italy's Taormina Film Festival (1977) for her role in "Tudo Bem," directed by Arnaldo Jabor, and starred in Leon Hirszman's "They Don't Wear Black-Tie," which won the Golden Lion at the 1980 Venice Film Festival. Montenegro's other film credits are: "A Falecida" by Leon Hirszman, Suzana Amaral's "The Hour of the Star," and Carlos Diegues' "See This Song."

Marilia Pêra (Irene) - Hailed as "one of the decade's (1980's) ten best actresses" by Pauline Kael, Marilia Pêra (Irene) won the National Society of Film Critics award for Best Actress in 1982 for her role in Hector Babenco's acclaimed "Pixote," and has also received Best Actress awards at the Gramado Film Festival (Triple Award Winner) and at the Cartegena Film Festival for Carlos Diegues' "Better Days Ahead." Her other films include "Bar Esperanza," Paul Morrissey's "Mixed Blood," "Angels of the Night," "The Interview," and Carlos Diegues' "Tieta."

Vinicius de Oliveira (Josué) - Josué is Vinicius de Oliveira's first film role. He was ten years old when he approached director Walter Salles at the Rio de Janeiro Airport, where he worked as a shoeshine boy. Tested against more than 1500 other young actors for the role of Josué, his performance was so convincing that he was immediately given the part. A born actor, he proved extremely responsive to direction and demonstrated an amazing capacity to concentrate during the most demanding film scenes.

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