In late eighties, in Ceausescu's Romania, a black market VHS bootlegger and a courageous female translator brought the magic of Western films to the Romanian people and sowed the seeds of a revolution.
Based on a 19th century tale, this self-referential fantasy, complete with musical and animated interludes plus a cast of fairytale characters, tells the story of a bet between an old man and a fairy over a bag with two gold coins.
After a ten-year absence, Severino returns to his tribe, the Manzeneros, who live on the edge of the Argentinian Andes. The reason for his visit is to take his younger brother back with him up north. However, in his home village, Severino finds a tense and troubled situation. His father Raymundo has recently been found dead. He was on the tracks of a gang of white bandits who had stolen cattle from both Indians and settlers. A sheep breeding company is behind these criminal machinations. This company seeks to drive the Indians and settlers off the fertile land so that they can purchase it cheaply.
In 1950 a Western spy is clandestinely parachuted into Communist Romania to retrieve secret WW2 codes and agent lists and also to assist a group of anti-Communist guerrillas escape but the Communist police is setting a trap.
At the end of the 16th century, Wallachia's ruler Michael the Brave dreams of uniting the kingdoms of Wallachia,Transylvania and Moldavia into a single country known as The United Principalities.
A police officer is investigating the disappearance of a colleague's young boy. His key seems to be the "dark skinned" friend of the boy about whom nobody cares, including the police.
In the Free Theater (Teatrul Liber) of Bucharest, the actors and crew prepare a new show, with the play "Disguise" ("Travesti"). After the opening night, which is only partly successful, they reach the conclusion that, along the years, they came to the mistake of also disguising this true feelings, becoming hypocrites, and this has a negative effect to their stage performances too.
