Antonio Skármeta

A poor postman in Isla Negra, Chile, befriends Pablo Neruda and asks his help in writing poems to the woman of his dreams.

The sierras of southern Brazil, 1963. The son of an French man and a Brazilian woman, Tony is a young man with a profound love of cinema and poetry. After graduating from college he returns to his small town in rural Brazil, to find out that his father had left for good, back to France. Tony then looks for the company of his fathers friends in search of information and references of a lost male role-model. He becomes a school teacher and a male figure to kids, in an attempt to provide them with something he lacks himself. A series of developments lead him to a surprising final lead on his fathers' whereabouts and reasons for leaving.

Present day. Chile. Legendary bank robber Vergara Grey is getting out of prison after 5 long years and is looking forward to a quiet, uneventful life together with his wife and son whom oddly he hasn't heard from in years. But soon his resolve is tested when he meets 19 year old Angel a young thief who insists the two join up to score the biggest heist of all time. Though tempted, he resists until he finds out that his beloved wife has gone off with a millionaire and his son wants to change his last name. Then Victoria, a graceful and mysteriously mute dancer living in a conservatory, steps into the picture. She captivates Vergara and Angel, as well as all others that cross her path, drastically changing their lives.

In the film, Antonio Skármeta, who had to flee Chile in 1973 due to the military dictatorship, interviews various Chilean artists who are also living in exile in Europe. How are work opportunities changing for artists far away from their homeland? What problems do they face? What do they gain from their special situation?

A fictitious country in South America: the military has taken power in the state and rules with an iron hand. Anyone who expresses criticism of the system is imprisoned. In a rebellious small town, however, the citizens show solidarity with the numerous political prisoners - until all the town's inhabitants are arrested. Now "peace reigns in the land" again.

Two life stories. That of Malou, a French woman, married to a German Jew, a refugee stranded in South America: a picture of the pre-war generation reflected in the unusual destiny of an individual woman. And that of Hannah, an alert, independent, modern woman, seeking after freedom and her own identity, and trying in present-day Berlin to save her shaky marriage.