In the almost silent opening to the film, Rui Pedro drives from one of the big cities of Mozambique, perhaps Beira, out to Bué Maria, where he spent his childhood and adolescence.

The son of Portuguese colonists living amongst a small community of whites at a remote outpost in the bus, Rui Pedro has grown up shuttling between two ways of life, the European mores of his family and the African traditions of the workers his father manages.

His life has wavered between the two banks of the nearby Pungue river, between the culture of the white settlers and that of the black natives, between the boss and the slaves, between violence and peace, between love and passion.

After the Second World War, at a time when the other European powers were reluctantly making ready to decolonize, Portugal stepped up its involvement in its African territories.

This exploitation at a general level is echoed in the relationship between Rui Pedro's cousin and his family's maid Ana, who is betrothed to Guinda, a local mechanic and froe.

Played by Amaral Matos, Jacopo is Rui Pedro's black 'father', who teaches him to respect nature and African culture but also gives the young boy his first experience of mercilessness.

He is studying in South Africa, and has returned to Mozambique for his summer holidays with stiff racist attitudes which contrast with the relative racial tolerance of his family.