Marcel Wengler

The title of the film, set in Luxembourg in 1942, during the Nazi occupation, amalgamates the words Schacko (helmet) and chapeau claque (opera hat). The village, in which it is set, has not yet been feeling the effects of the war at this point.

In this suspense story, the main character, Johann Neudorff (Gotz George), immigrated to Argentina from Germany after World War Two, and has become a successful businessman there. He is unconcerned with the nature of the government there, which at the time of this film (1978) is a military dictatorship. His comfortable existence is disrupted when he discovers that his beloved daughter Laura (Emilia Mazer) has become the lover of a political activist (Miguel Angel Sola) who is on the military's hit list. When his daughter is kidnapped, Johann attempts to use his government connections to free both her and her lover. However, his son Alfredo (Alex Benn) undermines his efforts, and Johann himself is incarcerated in a military prison, but not before he discovers that his daughter and her lover are both dead, killed by the regime.

The film follows the first Greenpeace expedition to the Antarctic on board of the Ross Sea. The film is also about the attempts of the industrialized nations to parcel out the 'last continent'.