While the nation of Panama struggles to find its identity, a figure rises out of the poorest neighborhoods of the city, and the boxer Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran unwittingly fulfils his country’s desperate need for a hero. From the 1960s to the year 2000, Duran’s combination of sporting genius and impulsive behaviour intertwined with and paralleled his country’s confusing and convoluted history. Including interviews with the American boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard (who lost his world title to Duran), this intelligent documentary examines the unequal relationship between Panama and the USA, and the consequent national inferiority complex, and deftly ties Duran’s charismatic personality to the national psyche.