Mondo candido

Candido is a naïve young man raised by a Westphalian baron in the castle of Thunder-ten-Tronckh. He harbors a secret crush on the baron's daughter Cunegonda. When the baron discovers their intimacy, he punishes Cunegonda and banishes Candido from the court.

Cunegonda is punished by her father, and Candido is expelled from the castle, forced to begin a perilous journey. The separation marks the beginning of Candido's long quest for love and meaning.

While wandering, Candido stumbles upon a camp of Bulgarian soldiers and is deceived into dangerous experiments on human flight. He survives the ordeal by escaping and continuing his journey.

On the road he meets Pangloss, who explains that the castle was attacked by motorcycle-riding assailants, killing the Baron and Baroness and leaving Cunegonda traumatized. Candido learns that his beloved has suffered terrible fates while he was exiled.

Candido and Pangloss are imprisoned by the Holy Inquisition. Pangloss is sentenced to death for his utopian ideas, and Candido endures corporal punishment as the inquisitors seek to break them.

Among the high-ranking attendees of the executions, Cunegonda is forced to become the lover of the head of the Tribunal. Candido and Cunegonda are briefly reunited before the proceedings resume.

After the brief reunion, Candido escapes once more, this time aided by Cacambo, a slave who has escaped his master. The two set off together toward a wider world.

Candido and Cacambo embark for the New World, chasing the utopian promise that ‘all are equal.’ They leave Europe behind and venture into a world of new possibilities and dangers.

In today’s New York City, Candido finds Pangloss, who has escaped the gallows and reinvented himself as a television director. Together they continue the search for Cunegonda amid a modern, media-saturated landscape.

Candido and Cacambo travel to Northern Ireland, a land devastated by Catholic–Protestant clashes. They confront hostility, sectarian tension, and the moral ambiguity of the worlds they touch.

The pair reach a military camp for Israeli female soldiers amid the Arab–Israeli conflict, where Candido learns Cunegonda has fled with a fedayeen. The revelation deepens his quest and tests his idealism.

After a long odyssey through wars, politics, and shifting loyalties, Candido finally reunites with Cunegonda. Their reunion offers a fragile note of romance within the satire of the world they inhabit.