The film starts in a surrealistic atmosphere with a dialog-song with a customs officer. Manoel seems to have received some orders on the computer and leaves his daily routine to join a 15th century pirate ship. His friends ecstatically welcome his return to the ship. The impressive first scene with characters who have completely broken away from the boundaries of ethics is remarkably original in the way their sense of freedom leads to the destruction of form, making it difficult to define by any standard. Joao Nicolau is a promising new director who has risen rapidly as the next generation of Portuguese cinema when his first feature film was introduced in Orizzonti at the Venice Film Festival. (RHEE, Soue-won)