AllMovie

Two travelers on a ferry boat, one a sophisticated Arab intellectual (Fadhel Jaziri) and the other a short, comic Pole (Julian Negulesco), run into trouble when they try to disembark at Dover -- the Pole is refused entry into England because he has no money, and the Arab is refused because his visa has expired. When the ferry returns to Belgium, the two homeless men get the same treatment from the customs officials there -- which leaves them stranded on the ferry boat. The Pole goes to work washing dishes on the ferry, but when he hears a radio broadcast about repression in his homeland he loses his grip on sanity for a moment and commits a heinous crime, knowing he will be sent to prison. The Arab, on the other hand, realizes there is nothing he can do now -- and possibly ever -- to get off the boat, and his approach to the situation is completely different -- he grabs the pen instead of the sword to work out the beginning of a compromise.