Kicking the sky

the long version

On a steamy summer day in 1977, Emanuel Jaques was shining shoes in downtown Toronto. Emanuel was lured away from his friends by a man who promised some easy money. Four days later the boys body was discovered. He had been brutally raped and murdered. Twelve-year-old Antonio and his best friends, Manny and Ricky, spend their days on their bikes exploring the labyrinth of laneways that link their Portuguese neighborhood to the rest of the city. But as the details of Emanuel's death expose Toronto's seedier underbelly, the boys are pulled into an adult world of danger and cruelty, secrets and lies much closer to home.