A boy and old man stop by a still-burning bus. "We will stay here" says the man, and they take up residence, explore the area around, and avoid other people. There's a civil war going on in Mozambique, and what the unseen soldiers don't destroy, the gangs of men do. The boy has no memory, but can read, and so he reads to the old man from a diary about a sailor who rows to a ship where only a woman is. The old man initiates the boy into manhood -- this will shock many modern westerners -- and tells him about things the boy has not seen, that indeed, neither of them have.
It's a movie about myth-making, the effort to make sense out of the world, set in a world that no longer makes any sense. The boy reads from the book, and is puzzled when the old man asks if he has invented any truths. The man tells him how the world was created.
Much of the movie is taken up with the two simply talking; given my unfamiliarity with Portuguese as it is spoken in Mozambique, I can't tell if the acting is particularly good, so it seems uncinematic to me. Nonetheless, the relationships and ideas behind the film are compelling.
It's a movie about myth-making, the effort to make sense out of the world, set in a world that no longer makes any sense. The boy reads from the book, and is puzzled when the old man asks if he has invented any truths. The man tells him how the world was created.
Much of the movie is taken up with the two simply talking; given my unfamiliarity with Portuguese as it is spoken in Mozambique, I can't tell if the acting is particularly good, so it seems uncinematic to me. Nonetheless, the relationships and ideas behind the film are compelling.