This
films combines the concepts of "dreams" and "wishful thinking". This is the
story of Norstad, a 14-year old boy who spends a summer vacation with his
mother and two sisters. 
Norstad's
father was killed when Norstad was a baby, while serving his country as an
aircraft pilot. That is why Norstad's dream is to go to a military academy,
and become a pilot, just like his dad. The film starts with s dream scene,
in which Norstad is seen in a pilot's uniforms, being carried on the shoulders
of his fellow pilots, at the graduation ceremony of the military academy.
His mother is waving at him from the stands, while his step-fathers (he had
quite a few of those), are tied in chains behind him. His beautiful girlfriend
walks beside him. Norstad's dream includes almost every aspect of his wishful
thinking- the wish to take his father place, the wish to revenge those who
attempt to take his father's place (his step fathers), and the wish to become
a grown independent man for himself. On the surface it seems like an ordinary
wishful dream, but taking a closer look shows that this dream reveals also
a different aspect of Norstad's personality. While waving at the crowd and
smiling at his girlfriend, Norstad suddenly feels the presence of "a face
in the crowd" that he can't see. That is when the atmosphere changes, and
Norstad begins to wake up. This feeling of fear is a result of the absence
of a father figure, an absence whose existence and meaning Norstad is not
fully aware of. This is where the second aspect of the dream takes place.
It's not only a dream that allows unconscious wishes to come true, but also
an expression of Norstad's unconscious fears and complexes. Since Norstad
himself is narrating the dream, he can't fully explain the part that touches
his unconscious fears. This is why he reefers to that feeling as a search
for "a face in the crowd", and not being able to explain t's meaning. Since
this scene is the opening scene of the film, it serves a main function in
presenting Norstad's character, and some details about him. This is a very
common use of dream scenes in films- using the dream as a way of presenting
important unconscious conflicts of the characters. This technique is used
also in "DonJuan de Marco", Akira
Kurasawa's "Dream", and many other films
