life has entered into a mysterious psychological crisis, exacerbated by her daughter's extreme behavior. In an opening monologue, she tells us that she has lost the ability to dream anything different from what she experiences in her daily life. This monologue, and ostensibly the rest of Laura's ongoing voice-over narration, occurs in the context of a consultation with an unseen doctor. From then on, the plot focuses around Laura's internal conflicts and her relationship with her daughter. In an early scene, Laurita informs her mother that she has grown tired of school and will be taking a break from her studies in order to travel to Madagascar. In response, Laura becomes furious and criticizes Laurita for indulging in such frivolous fantasies. Increasingly disaffected, Laurita proceeds to undergo a series of personality transformations. This disturbs Laura, who is frustrated with the stagnant conditions of her own life, but cannot make such sudden changes. Laura and Laurita live together with Laura's elderly mother (Elena Bolaños), and are accompanied by a reticent young painter known only as Molina (Jorge Molina) who appears to have befriended Laurita. Throughout the film, the family moves often, changing homes four times. The film has the episodic quality of a road movie as much of the exposition thus takes place in the midst of the family's relocations. The climax occurs when, following a particularly difficult argument with her mother, Laurita decides to run away from home. She returns after a few days, but the experience has altered both her and her mother. In the final scene, the two have practically traded personalities, and it is Laura who tells her daughter, "nos vamos de viaje para Madagascar" ("we’re going to travel to Madagascar"). The creators of the film bore the circumstances of its production admirably well. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, ICAIC had imported all of its film and development chemicals from the USSR and its economic allies. The lack of chemicals on the island after 1991 forced Madagascar’s production unit to mail all of their negatives to a lab in Venezuela, making "dailies," or the practice of reviewing each day's shooting and then re-filming whatever did not turn out as planned, impossible. Despite being forced to "shoot blind," as it were, Pérez maintains that he and his crew did not lack any truly fundamental supplies (besides gasoline, which was in scarce supply throughout the island