This is a very innovative film about Ho Chi Minh's youth, about ruthless colonial violence of French in Vietnam, about Revolt of the Lash, about life in Rio de Janeiro in the 1910's, about a black communist Navy cook known as Faca Cega (Dull Knife), supposedly a friend of Ho Chi Minh. There are clearly fictional parts, and also very well done documentary parts. However, most of the film is, intentionally and for fun, just in the blurred border. What was real? Is it a proper documentary or is it a mockumentary with some real historical and political information? We know that Faca Cega used to tell lies and convince people with his charisma. Has he created that all? Alternatively, is his grandson who is augmenting the story? He indeed states many times that this is cinema and not a Ph. D. thesis on History. Anyway, a great part of the charm of the movie lays precisely in this doubt, in how it carried on this intriguing story keeping spectator's high curiousity. In the end, he answers if it is fictional or not. Does he?
