"BASED ON THE NOVEL" "What were they thinking?" "When we stopped the bus they thought we're fools." "When I grabbed her she screamed!" "PRODUCED" "WRITTEN AND DIRECTED" "FOR MY PARENTS" "Hey. boy!" "We'll settle right here." "This will be our home" "Here?" "In this burnt-out bus?" "What's already burnt cannot burn again." "But isn't it dangerous to stay out here on the road?" "Wouldn't it be better to hide in the bush?" "From here we can see who goes by." "You always know everything!" "Grumbling won't help." "But another gang might come along." "If that happens we'll pretend we're dead, that we died along with the bus." "They're well burnt." "Come on, these bodies have been purified by the flames." "Don't make such a face, boy." "If we show disgust we'll offend the dead." "This shade sure feels good." "I haven't had a rest since we left the refugee camp." "Will you come and rest?" "Uncle Tuahir..." "I'm not your Uncle." "Don't you get fresh with me." "It's just a way of talking." "You know that." "I don't like it coming from you." "All right." "I won't say it again." "Let's take the dead outside." "Why?" "Do they stink?" "That's right." "I've lived among them for far too long." "There's another here." "This one doesn't smell." "They've only just raided the bus." "Take it." "Let's bury him with the others." "That's enough, boy." "Don't cover them too much so they can still touch life." "Come here." "Help me." "You try, Muidinga." "Look, notebooks." "I couldn't care less about those." "All I want is food." "A ball!" "Leave those notebooks, boy." "Our feast awaits us." "Aren't you going to eat?" "Yes..." "There you go again, thinking about your parents." "Let me tell you something." "Your parents don't want to know you're alive." "Why do you say that?" "In war time children are a burden." "No more talking." "Eat slowly so you can taste every colour." "What are you doing, boy?" "Can't you see?" "You've got to be joking..." "Read something out loud just to prove it." ""I'm writing this to get rid of my fear of going mad." ""The memories I have won't come together." ""as if they wanted to flee out of my head." ""When the war started time was going by, slowly and gently." ""At first, we'd only hear some news of things happening far away." ""Then the firing got nearer and blood filled our fears." ""My name is Ktidzu." "I was named after the small palm trees" ""bending with the wind by the seashore." ""It was my father, who was also a fisherman" ""and died from cholera many years ago, that gave me this name." ""to honour his great passion, drinking sura in the afternoon." ""I could see our family going to pieces like a pot of clay" ""smashed in the ground." ""I saw how much we had changed" ""when my mother threw out my youngest brother." "From now on, Junhito. my son, you're going to live in the chicken-coop." "Your body and soul will begin to look like a chicken." "When the gangs arrive they won't take you." "Mother, what are you doing?" "The first thing they steal is food." "Don't complain." "Mother, you can't do that to Junhito." "Junhito, my son, now we'll teach you to cock-a-doodle-doo." "I'll make you chicken's clothes and they won't see you." "Hi, Kindzu!" "Hello, Surendra." "Have you learnt everything yoy need to become a gentleman?" "Sure." "Hello, Mrs. Assma." "You know, my mother isn't well." "Today she locked up brother Junhito in the chicken-coop." "She says it will save him." "I couldn't change her mind." "It must be this war." "Good-morning!" "I need some chicken broth." "One chicken broth cube.." "Surendra, look!" "What's this, taking without paying?" "Half-caste, is this your country for you to talk to me like that?" "Get out." "Now!" "I can't stand blacks, Kindzu." "Who do you like, then?" "Whites?" "Not them." "I know, you like Indians." "No." "I like men with no race." "Like you." "Give me some more, Uncle." "It's good to get up this early." "We have the whole day to search for things." "Come on, Muidinga, get up." "Take those things inside." "Uncle Tuahir, this Micaia tree wasn't here yesterday." "Of course it was here." "No, it wasn't." "Don't talk nonsense, boy." "Why are you doing that?" "So no one knows we're living here." "Let's go." "How could Kindzu's mother do that to her own son?" "She believes that one day the war will end and everything will be better." "It's her way of surviving." "But to lock up her own son in a chicken-coop?" "She is a good mother." "Before, I'd have minded too." "But not now." "Tuahir. don't be angry if I call you uncle..." "Yes. what is it?" "Tell me about my life." "Who was I before you found me?" "Uncle." "Uncle, Uncle." "I don't like that word." "Tell me." "I'm asking you." "You don't even have a story." "I found you in the camp." "I felt sorry for you when I saw you crawling about like a spider with legs so weak they'd forgotten how to walk..." "But did you know me?" "Did you know who I was?" "Not at all." "I'd never seen you before." "Give me that ball now." "Let's go." "A kid!" "Muidinga!" "Careful." "Muidinga!" "Don't go there!" "Careful, come back!" "Have you forgotten about the mines?" "You must never run into the bush without looking." "I won't do it again." "I promise." "The kid misses people." "And I miss the kid." "Especially here in my stomach." "Are we going to eat it?" "Of course!" "I don't want to kill it." "It's like we're in a village and not in the middle of nowhere." "You don't even know what a village is." "Never put your heart into anything." "Let alone into an animal." "Take it, take him so it gets fatter..." "Come, Mody Dick." "Uncle!" "I just remembered my school!" "I remember, I swear!" "Remember what?" "The voices, the noise of the other children." "Listen to me once and for all." "There was never any other children, there was never anything." "Do you hear me?" "I was the one who found you, full of slobber and snot." "As if you were born just then." "I'm not your uncle." "I'm your father." "Not that one." "Tuahir!" "Can't you see it's written7" "What do I care if it's written?" "I can't even read!" "I just want to get this damn fire going!" "Why would you want to read such a sad story?" "You won't read alone?" ""One night the bandits attacked Surendra's store." ""The news travelled fast" ""But no one showed any sorrow for his misfortune." ""He was a foreigner unworthy of any sympathy" ""I had to go to find out what happened."" "Surendra..." "Now. do you see what happened?" "Who came to comfort me?" "Just you, nobody else." "You can't leave me here all by myself." "Kindzu. you have ancestors." "They are here, living with you." "I don't have any." "I don't know who they were." "But you belong here." "This is also your land." "What land, Kindzu?" "I have no place of my own." "You always say that we come from the same land." "Children of the Indian Ocean." "Take me with you." "That I can't do." "Your place is here with your family." "You don't know what it's like to be a runaway in other people's land." "I don't want you to suffer, Kindzu." "Goodbye, Mrs Assma." "What have they done to you, my brother?" "If you cry every time you're faced with something sad you're going to cry your whole life." "Stop crying!" "Perhaps the same thing happened to my whole family." "When you cry like that you summon the spirits." "Be quiet or It'll beat the sadness out of you." "We'll never get out of here." "Yes, we will." "Someday this war will end." "This road will be filled with people laughing and trucks rolling past." "just as it used to." "Now, get going." "Let's go, quick." "What's this?" "We aren't taking the kid with us!" "But it can't stay here all alone, Uncle." "The kid is going to slow us down in our search for food." "But if we leave it someone might take it." "You're right." "We will eat it later." "Don't worry, Mody Dick." "It's not going to happen." "Shit!" "Don't eat that!" "Can you see those bites?" "The mice got here before us." "They only eat sour yam roots." "That's why you got a disease called mantakassa." "It left you with a limp and no memory." "It's best not to remember the past." "I guess in the end you were lucky to have that disease." "You could forget everything." "I can't." "Uncle!" "Tell me how you found me." "Tell me." "Uncle!" "I was at the camp." "They asked me to help them bury six children." "When I dragged, you I noticed you were still alive." "The others thought it wasn't worth saving a child's life to live in a world like this." "I had to lie and sai you were my nephew." "At first all you did was vomit, but then you learned how to laugh." "I named you Muidinga, after my son who lives in South Afriea." "Why didn't you tell me that before, Uncle?" ""I have no family now." "I cried just like Junhito," ""as I was running after the ball." ""Inside my head I could hear my mother's grief, my brothers" ""and Junhito inside the chicken-coop held by wire, just like a chicken." ""In despair I knew what I wished." ""I had to leave before I was pushed into that all consuming fire." ""Since I left the village my arms kept on rowing." ""And I rowed for endless days and nights and lost track of time."" "Anyone?" "Is anyone there?" "Is anyone there?" "Who's there?" "Have you come to man this ship?" "What do you mean by that, madam?" "Can you lower the ladder?" "I'm asking." "What do you want from here?" "Nothing." "Hey, don't give me that." "Everybody wants something from somebody." "Lower the ladder." "Please." "Can't you see my boat is going to tip over?" "It's broken!" "Can you fix this ship?" "I'm a sailor, that's all I know!" "What were you doing lost in the sea?" "I'm looking for a place where there's no war." "I'd like to find such a place myself." "What is your name?" "Mrs. Farida." "And yours?" "Kindzu." "What are you doing here alone?" "When I found out that this ship was stranded" "I asked the fishermen to bring me with them." "They looted the ship until their boats were so full they couldn't take me back to land." "I felt relieved." "It was exactly what I wanted." "Now I'm waiting for the owners of the ship to show up to fix it, get the engine started and take me away far away from here." "Uncle!" "Uncle!" "Every time we read from the notebooks we're taken to a different place." "Listen to me, Uncle." "The plain that was so dry yesterday became a little greener just overnight." "That's just dreams." "The fruit of your desire" "Uncle, have you ever been at sea?" "I'm glad that Kindzu found such a beautiful woman." "Are those diaries all you can think about?" "It's driving me crazy." "Look!" "A tree full of fruit." "Muidinga. we found it." "Leave that damn kid alone." "Not that one, it's green." "Take that one instead." "Look at this one." "Where are we, Uncle?" "Where are we?" "Damn it!" "I was being so careful and yet we've fallen into this trap." "See if you can untie the knot." "Can you do it?" "It's a pity we don't have a knife." "What if nobody finds us here?" "Don't be a pessimist, that will only bring us bad luck." "Someone will come along." "And Mody Dick?" "Alone in the middle of nowhere." "It doesn't help to think about him now." "I was just testing to see if it still worked." "If we hear footsteps" "I will start blowing." "Don't say anything now, let's listen to the sounds of the road." "Uncle, wake up." "They're coming to save us!" "You're runaways, the evil is in your teeth." "It's the teeth that summon hunger." "That's why I had all my teeth taken out." "They're all here, in this tin." "Are you going to get us out of here or not?" "I only miss them when I laugh you evil ones." "Cut the net!" "I'm going to sow you." "Sow us?" "I'm going to bury you like a seed." "When you pierce through the ground from each blossom a person will be born." "I want company." "The old man is mad." "He is going to kill us." "I need company." "Me!" "Siqueleto!" "Not here, in my village." "I'm an old man." "I've seen a lot of misery." "But I've never seen anything like this here, in my village." "Now it's empty." "Everyone died or had to flee." "I'm the only one that didn't want to run away." "This is the tree of my ancestors." "It looks dead, but it's not." "It's living, very quietly." "Like me." "Cut the net!" "Cut the net, Siqueleto!" "I'm going to get the hoe to bury you." "Mr. Siqueleto, the war is coming to an end." "Mr. Siqueleto, the war is coming to an end." "The rich countries are going to help us." "The rich countries are going to help us." "You won't have to dig the ground anymore." "Cut the net." "Cut the net!" "I'm going to bury you, evil one." "Muidinga, here's a cigarette." "Keep an eye on Siqueleto." "He's not coming now He's looking for the hoe." "Help me!" "Help!" "They've got away!" "Devils." "Let's rest a while." "We were lucky we escaped, boy." "You're right." "I didn't even taste that cigarette." "Is it true what you said about the other countries?" "I was saying that just to cheer up the old man so he'd let us go." "The old man is crazy." "No. he isn't!" "He wants people to be born... ..so he can show them where the sacred tree is," "so they'll pay their respects to the dead." "That is why he doesn't want to die alone." "So that everything won't die with him." "Let's go now." "Look, Uncle." "Mody Dick!" "He was waiting for me!" "Let's go." "Do you need all that time just to find some cans?" "That's going to be much too warm." "Now I feel like a gentleman." "Farida this is yours." "I wouldn't feel right in a dress like that." "How do you know without trying it on ?" "Come on, try it on." "Look." "You look beautiful." "Will you zip it?" "We'lI leave tomorrow." "No." "I'm not going." "But why?" "I can't leave without my son." "Your son?" "Do you see those shadows over there?" "It's a lighthouse." "When the lights go on again my son will be able to find me." "The light of that lighthouse is my only hope." "One day I left Gaspar in a mission." "That's why I like this place." "This sea and the sea that washes the beach where the mission is are one and the same." "Gaspar and I see the.same waves." "Why did you do that?" "My mother died very young." "I grew up in Matimati," "in the house of Romao Pinto." "He had a large cotton plantation." "And Mrs. Virginia, his wife... she always treated me like a daughter." "She taught me how to sew and how to read." "But one day..." "One day I got pregnant arid didn't have the courage to tell her." "What happened?" "Don't ask me!" "There's no father." "After that  I had to leave Mrs. Virginia's house." "I couldn't stay there." "I walked around feeling sad, unable to say anything ..." "And then I decided to go to Xiquingula to Aunt Euzinha's house." "But when Gaspar was born I couldn't love him." "Was that a long time ago?" "He's going to be twelve." "For a long time I wandered like a crazy woman." "You know..." "I keep wondering where my little boy might be." "As time went by I wanted to be a mother." "One day I went to the mission to look for him but he had run away." "He tricked the nuns." "That means he's very smart, don't you think?" "Did you try to find out if he was with Mrs. Virginia?" "Of course not!" "And with Aunt Euzinha?" "No, she lives very far away." "I didn't have the strength." "That's why I decided to leave Mozambique." "Find a faraway place to live, a place that accepts me and my son just as we are." "I'm tired of talking." "I'm going to the sea." "I'm going to ask Farida if she is my mother." "Muidinga. that's just a notebook you found, nothing else." "But what about the sound of the sea that I hear?" "I need to know what that means." "You still hung up on that crazy idea, that you're going to find your parents?" "I forbid you!" "I don't want you to think about it." "Ever again." "Your parents are dead." "Killed by the bandits' bullets." "That's why I'm telling you, get that stupid idea out of your head." "Be quiet." "Mody Dick." "You've eaten enough." "Let's go now." "Look, Mody Dick!" "Uncle is coming." "Why did you leave without telling me?" "You didn't want to come so I decided to leave alone." "Thank you, Uncle." "That's no excuse to call me Uncle!" "Good afternoon, my friend." "I've been on the road so long, I'm beginning to see things." "Do you have any water to spare?" "What can you give us in return?" "I can give you a piece of cloth." "What am I going to do with a piece of cloth, man?" "Not man, Joseldo Bastante (plenty)." "Mr. Joseldo, what I want is something to eat." "Will a coconut do?" "Not one. two." "Are you coming from the sea?" "I've been walking for a week already." "Can you tell us the way?" "Yes." "You keep walking straight ahead." "When you get to the first crossroad turn right." "Keep on walking." "You walk and walk and you'll see Goba Mountain." "Then you are almost there." "Thanks." "Water keeps her bones flexible." "One day, moving back or moving forth will be all the same to her." "Take off your scarf, my child." "Artists like you don't wear head cloths, Filomeninha." "Filomeninha isn't really..." "...her artistic name is Marilyn." "I'm training her to be famous, to twist her body like a snake.\" "Father, I'm so cold..." "Cold, my darling?" "How can you be cold when it's so hot?" "You 'can't be rich without making sacrifices." "Many, many thanks." "When she becomes famous, you'll see." "We'll fill boxes, suitcases, even pots full of money." "Look how pretty she is, Uncle." "Be careful." "A loving heart loses weight" "And love grows faster than the chest." "And you don't have enough ribs." "But Uncle, I hardly even glanced at the girl." "Enough!" "Enough!" "Eat slowly so you can taste every colour." "Mody Dick!" "Don't go into the bush!" "Muidinga!" "Don't go into the bush!" "Mody Dick!" "Don't ever do anything this stupid again, do you hear me?" "Maybe nothing happened to Mody Dick." "I want to see how he is." "It's not worth it now." "Why didn't I hold him tighter?" "Don't think about it any more." "Just think of yourself now." "Look, boy." "When you see the earth has been moved around like that, be wary." "You don't play around with something like that." "Never forget what happened to Mody Dick." "Can't you sleep, Uncle?" "No." "I can't sleep." "Are you also thinking about Mody Dick, like me?" "I don't think about it at all." "It's just that I miss those stories." "Do you know who I'm thinking about?" "No, Uncle." "Who?" "Farida." "Some women are like rain and others are like mist." "Farida must be one of those worth getting your hair all tangled up." "Are you going to read for me?" "If I fall asleep, don't stop." "I can hear you even in my sleep." ""Farida gave me a new taste for life." ""I needed to save her because she was rescuing me" ""from the misery of an empty life." ""There was still someone who didn't wallow in the same mud" ""as the rest of us." ""Someone who still had hope." "even if it was a bit crazy."" "I just fixed my boat." "Farida, lets go ashore and look for your son, and then we can leave." "Will you really do that for me?" "Sure." "Do you know who led you here?" "I willed you." "I knew you would come." "I was waiting for you, Kindzu." "At first I couldn't see the lighthouse." "Now I can." "Let's go ashore and look for your son." "No, I can't abandon this ship." "But it's only a stranded boat." "Only the past lives here." "It's like trying to light a burnt match." "That land hurts me." "This is my nest." "I can't go through everything again." "I couldn't take it." "Do you promise to wait for me?" "Will you stay here until I get back?" "I'll come back with your son." "I promise." "This is Matimati, isn't it?" "Didn't you see the ship?" "No." "I didn't." "Didn't you see the ship?" "We're waiting for aid relief." "Did you hurt yourself?" "No." "Kindzu!" "Antoninho?" "!" "Is Surendra here too?" "He's in the shop." "Come with me." "I have to go there anyway to return the wheelchair, comrade." "I hate it when you call me comrade." "Don't you want to sit in it?" "No, I don't." "Why do you ask me that?" "I hire out the chair to amuse people." "The taxi belongs to everyone, see?" "I shouldn't be the only one benefiting from it." "This brings me a few cents." "That's how we live these days." "You took your time." "Is my wheelchair still in one piece?" "Sure, comrade." "Look, not even a tiny scratch." "Hello, Surendra!" "Hello." "Well, aren't you going to ask me" ""Have you learnt everything you need to become a gentleman"?" "Those times are no longer." "What have they done to you..." "I left for nothing." "Assma died of grief." "Look at the state I'm in." "I'm glad she didn't live to see this." "How is your mother?" "And your brother, Junhito?" "When I got back from fishing, it was too late." "Uncle, now that we have gone past Goba Mountain, is it still far?" "Maybe not." "I think it's going to rain." "Let's hide under that piece of junk over there." "Come on, Uncle, quick." "Come on, Uncle." "Do you remember when Farida hugged Kindzu?" "Would you do the same as he did?" "Do what?" "Fall in love and then leave to look for her son." "It's the need to have a family." "Missing his little brother." "That's all." "I didn't know it was like that" "What do you mean like that?" "What adults do." "What you need is a woman." "Women are good when there's no love involved, because love slips away." "We build a house for it, and it grows in the garden." "Better to have a whore, boy." "We spend our money, not our heart." "You never spend your heart on a whore." "You don't know of my love affair with Jorogina?" "I promised her everything and she left with another." "I was wrong about that woman, Muidinga." "Didn't I tell you, Uncle?" "Here's the rain." "I can't take you to the girls, like my father did with me." "Just a minute, boy." "Let me get a bit closer." "Now, think of girls." "Uncle, don't do that." "Come on, do as I tell you." "But, Uncle, I can't ..." "Not like this." "That's because you're only thinking with your head." "Think with your whole body." "It won't work, Uncle." "Think about..." "Think about the snake girl." "Filomeninha?" "Her skin isn't as smooth as a man's." "She has her own tattoos." "If you touched her belly it would feel like rough fruit skin." "It's not the skin or the tattoos." "It's just that I can't." "Not like this, Unele." "It's the skin, I know." "Have you ever seen a fish without scales?" "Without tattoos the woman inside will not awaken." "Just by talking about it is waking you up." "Keep going, boy." "I'll help you." "Are we drunk, Uncle?" "No, it's just the joy you've gathered inside you body." "Isn't it dangerous to make so much noise?" "Just laugh, boy." "Laugh out loud and you'll drive away the bad spirits." "This can't be!" "We're back in the bus!" "Are we lost?" "Lost?" "You don't want me to find Farida." "Don't talk nonsense, boy." "You are afraid that I will find her." "Because when I find her I won't need you anymore!" "We just took a wrong turn." "That's all." "Then why did you say that my family was dead?" "I was annoyed." "Even now I'm afraid." "We are walking because of some notebooks." "What's that?" "I give up." "I'll stay right here!" "What do you mean, you'll stay here?" "Move. boy." "Pick up the toy." "You don't even know where the sea is." "You've never been there." "Once it gets into your heart it will never leave again." "What did you say, Uncle?" "Nothing..." "Look, Muidinga." "Train tracks." "Have you ever heard the voice of a train?" "Never, Uncle." "It's nice to listen to." "Pretend that a train is coming, boy" "I have to whittle hard so people will pay some attention." "Can you see over there?" "Can you?" "Can you?" "Let's go." "Run to the station, boy, the train is coming." "Look!" "No, no, madam, this train is bound for Beira." "To Quelimane only at 4:30 p.m." "Expensive perfume, cheap tip." "I shouldn't have given her the right information." "Enough playing around." "I'm getting nostalgic." "I used to travel a lot with my children in the old days." "Do you know which way to the sea?" "Do you mean Quissico beach?" "I don't think it is very far but I'm not sure of the way." "Thank you, anyway." "Thank you." "Come on, Muidinga." "Did you see the mother's beautiful smile, Tuahir?" "She smiles like any other person." "No, Uncle." "She smiles like a mother full of tenderness." "Don't let yourself be fooled." "Not all mothers are the same." "That I know." "But I'm sure my mother is." "And that's how I met Farida." "I've come to ask a few questions on her behalf." "To try and find Gaspar." "If it was such a long time ago, the boy must be in the bush with the gangs." "Do you know where Romao Pinto lives, a Portuguese who owns a cotton plantation?" "Surendra, do you remember that Portuguese they killed?" "Everyone talked about it." "When the war broke out they set fire to his plantation." "He was really mean to blacks." "Did they all die?" "Only Romao." "Isn't that right, Antoninho?" "His widow lives in the first house as you go into town." "Mrs. Virginia?" "Mrs. Virginia?" "Mrs. Virginia?" "I'm not Mrs. Virginia." "I'm Grandma." "And who are you?" "I'm Kindzu." "I'd like to talk to you ..." "Our tongue grows bigger as we grow old." "Or was it my face that shrank?" "Do you remember Farida?" "With my tongue like this I can't remember anything." "She asked me to find her son." "DonTtelf me you don't remember him!" "I found her alone on a ship..." "She walks back and forth thinking only of her son." "Grief is eating away her insides." "I'm here because of her." "Quiet!" "I can't talk here." "Why not ?" "If I do my little house will be filled with spirits." "Romao has forbidden me to talk about Farida." "Where are we going, Mrs. Virginia?" "We're going to a place only known to me." "And don't call me Mrs. Virginia, call me Grandma." "Because then I'll think of you as a child." "Thank you." "This is my favourite place and also Farida's." "This is where I taught her how to read." "Is my little girl all right?" "Yes." "Jorginho, Luizinho!" "Go away, boys." "Can't you see I'm talking to someone?" "One morning I found a child lying unconscious here in the garden." "I gave him food." "He didn't speak." "At first I thought he was mute." "Then he told me his name was Gaspar, that he had run away from the mission and was looking for his mother but no one knew where she was." "I invited him to stay here." "You know, he's almost my flesh and blood, he's the son of Romao, my late husband." "Didn't Farida tell you?" "What happened to Gaspar, Grandma?" "He only stayed a couple of days." "Then he ran away, no one knows where." "I'm coming." "It's time to feed my babies." "What will become of them when I am gone?" "Luizinho." "Jorginho, here's your food." "You too, Elsinha!" "Or you'll get thin." "Bye-bye, Kindzu." "Uncle Tuahir, after what Mrs. Virginia said, do you think my mother will still want me?" "My father is dead." "A Portuguese!" "Maybe that's why she wanted to give me away." "First you'll have to ask Farida if she really is your mother." "What was it like when you were a father?" "That was all so long ago I've forgotten." "No you haven't." "Let's pretend that I'm your son and you're my father." "Your father?" "Yes." "Right, father?" "All right, son." "What do you want me to do?" "Tell me a story." "Do you know how plants and animals were born?" "The first man and the first woman came out of a pile of dirt, much like this one that ants make." "The world was made only of people." "There weren't any trees, animals or stones." "The earth felt that the people weren't happy." "So many people were born, that God thought that they were all alike" "and that there were too many of them." "So He decided to change some men into plants, others into animals and others into stones." "See?" "We are all brothers." "Trees and animals, animals and people, people and stones." "You don't know this, son." "But when people sleep the earth is searching." "Searching for what?" "Is searching inside each human being, collecting dreams just like a dream weaver." "Uncle, that's enough of this game." "My head is spinning." "Uncle?" "So now you call me Uncle?" "No, Father." "Come on, Uncle." "It's to the right." "Just look at that undergrowth." "Everything is so dry!" "It isn't dry." "The green has just leaked and the yellow filled up." "Nonsense." "This bird's song is so sad." "I don't like to hear it." "This bird announces death." "That's what this war has done." "This thing that doesn't even have a name." "Let's go." "It's not even a war because if it was a real war, it would have created an army." "But a ghost war creates a ghost army." "Feared by all and ruled by none." "In the country of the blind the one-eyed man... gets it torn off." "You're too quiet, boy." "That's hunger." "Yes, Uncle." "Do you know what you have to do?" "Swallow hard." "Swallow?" "Swallow your spit like this..." "As if food was going down your throat." "Then you'll confuse hunger." "Let's go." "It's as if the road doesn't want us to reach Farida." "It's not possible!" "This road goes around in circles." "It doesn't lead anywhere." "Water sprouts when it's planted, doesn't it, Uncle?" "What are you doing, Muidinga?" "A river always flows to the sea. right?" "I'm making a river." "Look, Uncle!" "Look!" "A trickle of water is coming out already!" "And what are you going to call your river?" "Mother-Water." "Because this river will be such a gentle river that will embrace anyone who travels with it." "It will never overflow because it will never be angry." "And it will be so strong it will never stop running." "Look, Uncle." "Look!" "The bus is moving, Uncle." "Let's go!" "Let me tell you something, boy." "I know it's the truth." "We're not moving, it's the road that's moving." "But I've said that a long time ago, Uncle." "No, not you." "I'm saying it." "Everything happened near the bus." "The wohole country went past us, sleepwalking." "Yes, boy, we're travelling in this bus that is standing still, we haven't stopped travelling." "This reminds me of a train." "When the war came, trains stopped running." "I would arrive at dawn and stay at my post holding the lamp." "Then I'd sweep the platform and repair the station planks." "I knew one day the train would come." "And when that happened" "I would be ready." "All organized and wearing my uniform." "You know..." "I feel like cleaning this bus just like I used to do in the station." "But it's not worth it now." "But don't you always say, something is going to happen, Uncle?" "I used to say that but I've lost hope now." "That's a lie." "What are you doing." "Uncle?" "Damned mosquitoes!" "Don't let them bother you." "Take those notebooks." "It's a good thing that you can read." "Without reading we would be condemned to loneliness." "Read it to me, boy." "Read while I'm working." ""The next day, I ran into the sorcerer of my village."" "How did he show up there?" "How come he knows about Kindzu?" "I think I got the wrong page." "Well Kindzu, how did it go?" "The boy was there and I'm almost sure he went to an Aunt." "I'm going to look for this Aunt at Xiquingula village." "That village was attacked." "All the survivors were taken to the Xalala camp." "Be careful." "You can't do it alone." "The roads are full of mines." "If it's not the mines, it's the gangs." "I'm going there tomorrow, anyway." "You have a gun?" "Of course not." "You find the boy, but you are forbidden to give him a pen or a hoe." "That's no life." "It's a gun that gives you a life." "What are you writing?" "I write as I dream along." "Is anyone going to read it?" "Perhaps." "It's not good to teach people how to dream." "Gaspar!" "Are you there?" "Gaspar!" "Are you trying to get killed?" "Come on." "Move forward." "Cut off this one's ears." "Who are you?" "Why are you calling Gaspar?" "Was Gaspar among the children?" "Luckily, no." "Why do you ask?" "Are you Aunt Euzinha?" "I'm here at Faridas' request." "My niece is still alive?" "Yes, she's alive." "Oh my God..." "That's good news." "No, no." "Get back." "Only I work here." "Old women aren't wanted here." "The only ones kept are those that can work." "Those who suffer most in the war... are not the ones licensed to kill." "Women and children they bear most of the suffering." "Do you know where Gaspar is now?" "Why would you want to know?" "I promised Farida that I would find him." "She wants to have him close to her again." "I'm happy that she no longer feels disgust for her son." "That she wants to be a mother." "Do you know what it's like to be raped, to be alone and then have a mulatto son?" "The people from the village made her life hell." "They'd spit on the ground when she walked by." "It was a big misfortune for her." "Is this about love?" "Yes, it is." "Then, that's all I need to know." "I thought this might happen, so I sent Gaspar to a safer camp." "Come closer." "I'm going to tell you a secret" "This is just between us." "I hope that camp is still safe." "Thank you, on Farida's behalf." "Why did you do that, Uncle?" "It's just hurting a little." "Do you have a fever?" "No." "It's nothing." "I'm just tired from all the travelling." "Sit down." "Look, Uncle, the river has people now..." "Who are they?" "What are they doing?" "They are washing themselves so they can start the New Year as pure as newborn babies." "Uncle, have we been on the road for a year already?" "What difference does it make?" "A day. a month, half a year..." "You'll see, Farida will not be waiting for me any more." "You don't have to worry about that." "But you said yourself that in times of war, children are a burden." "Did I say that?" "A father is always a father, while the child is still in the womb and until the day he dies." "Now I understand why my mother wanted to leave me in the mission." "After I've heard Tia Euzinha's words." "Didn't I tell you?" "She needed a lot of courage." "You never said that." "I never said it, but I should have." "I'm very proud of my mother now!" "Uncle, Uncle!" "We're almost there" "Listen!" "It's the sea." "The real sea." "I've heard the sound of this sea ever since we found the bus." "This fever isn't from the mosquitoes." "It's the birds singing that is making my head hot." "What birds?" "Can't you see them flying around?" "Do you know what you're going to do now?" "You're going to shoo of those birds of ill omen." "The birds that are giving me this fever." "All right?" "Don't do that, Uncle." "Can't you see it's very dangerous?" "It's something from my ehildhood." "I had thin blood." "So, my mother used to hang me from the ceiling." "That's enough now." "Eat slowly, so you can taste every eolour." "If I die here, push me overboard." "Don't say that, Uncle." "Stay here with me." "I'll look after you." "Throw me in the water, son." "I want to die with water all around me, not dirt." "You're not going to die." "Meanwhile, just rest." "Look, Uncle!" "Look!" "It's Farida's lighthouse!" "Uncle, Uncle." "It's the ship." "What's the name of the ship?" "You aren't going to believe it, Uncle." "Why?" "Because it's called Mody Dick." "Remember?" "Sit closer to me so you can get the warmth." "Take it." "It's yours." "I don't want it, Uncle." "Take it, for luck." "No." "No more talking now." "How are you going to stop the train?" "Aren't you always saying, that something is going to happen, that the war will come to an end?" "Wait, Uncle." "I'll read to you." "How much more until that diary is finished, Muidinga?" "Not much more." "This is the last one." "Don't read it to me then." "Keep it, for when you're alone." "No, Uncle." "I can read it now." "Muidinga. everything you've read in the notebooks is it all really written there?" "I don't know what you mean." "I only want to know if you made up any truths." "How can you think such a thing, Uncle?" "Leave it." "Now, read to me." "After seeing Tia Euzinha, I went to two different camps." ""I feel that I'm going to find Gaspar." "it's only a matter of time." "My strength is knowing that Farida is waiting for me, out there in the sea."" "Tuahir..." "Tuahir!" "Tuahir, wake up!" "Please don't go." "Tuahir!" "Don't leave me here alone, please, Tuahir." "Tuahir!" ""I remember the day that we looked at each other" ""as if we recognized one another as the only creatures on earth." ""I knew then," ""that a whole lifetime wasn't enough to contemplate those eyes."" "Pick them up!" "You thought you could get away." "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Gaspar..." "Hey, boy." "We'll settle right here." "THE END"