AllMovie

A middle-aged white man recalls the summer some 35 years ago during which he lost his innocence in director Fernando Vendrell's 2002 coming-of-age drama Light Drops. Visiting an old abandoned settlement in Mozambique that he and his family lived in during the 1950s, Rui Pedro (Luis Sarmento) remembers another homecoming he had at this same spot when he was 14. Via flashback, a young Rui (Filipe Carvalho) rejoins the community with joy as he reconnects with his white and African friends. Trouble comes soon afterwards in the form of two white visitors -- a relative of Rui's from South Africa and an army officer. The relative begins sowing the seeds of discontent by having an affair with Rui's family's maid, Ana (Alexandra Antunes), a very close friend of Rui's who had just married another domestic in the Pedro household. Not long after, her new husband and the tribe learn of her infidelity and exact the severe punishment prescribed by tribal law. Meanwhile, the army officer institutes strict guidelines governing the farming practices of the region, making it virtually impossible for any of the indigenous peoples of the region to survive. As rebellion looms over the countryside, Rui realizes his own father is complicit in exploiting the natives and is forced to choose sides in the oncoming battle between the settlers and the natives.