An orphan growing up in a Brazilian river town, Lavo records his difficult friendship with Mundo, an awkward but taunted misfit at school. The only childd of a local tycoon, Mundo makes a delinquent heir, preferring to be a cartoonist rather than take the paths his family is keen for him to follow.

 Mundo’s outlandish artistic escapades humiliate and antagonise his father, while Mundo’s supportive but alcoholic wife adds matrimonial bile to the family’s bitter mistery.

Confusing relationships and responsabilities heighten the claustrophobic intensity of this heat-maddened tale. Lavos is an uncertain go-between in Hatoum’s tangled acconunt. Mundo’s defiance smoulders with the promise of conflagration.