While shooting a documentary on the life of a teacher working in very remote and desolate areas of the Andes, Pereira came upon the story of a young boy Veronica Cruz, which inspired him to make this, his first feature film. In the film, the young Indian boy Veronica is adopted by a school teacher, who is possibly the only person he has encountered in his life apart from his grand-mother and father. The veneer of childhood innocence slowly but irrevocably cracks, however, with the arrival of the militia in the wake of the military coup of 1976. The teacher is forced to move to another village. Attempts to find Veronica's father, who left the boy to find work elsewhere, are met with threats and hostility. Alone again, Veronica is left with his dreams of faraway oceans. The outbreak of the Falklands War provides the film's grim postscript

Pereira's film is more than, a vivid portrait of community life in one of the world's most isolated, desolate and difficult places. It is a touching parable of injustice, of the tragedy inflicted by military dictatorships when they attempt to rule those oblivious to political affairs.

A British/Argentine co-production, it is a film told from a distant, allusive, yet engaged point of view, rich in subtle and understated political overtones.

See also: A King and His Movie/South! Stories From Cuscatalan