Many masks, lots of music, and two African utopias. An essay-opera set in Mozartbique: In a former Grand Hotel live today nearly 3,000 squatters. The hotel guests improvise, play, dance, and celebrate a masked ball, as in an opera by Mozart. At the same time, the film tells the story of the film institute in Maputo that was founded in the 1970s. Jean Rouch and Jean-Luc Godard have taught there. Films were mostly shot on 35mm b&w stock from East-Germany. It was the birth of the image of a nation.