On May 20th, 2002, after 24 years of Indonesian occupation and two United Nations Administrations, East Timor gained its independence. A month before this, the people of East Timor chose their first president, Xanana Gusmão, the historic leader of the resistance to occupation. A president who the people want as their spokesman, and whose dream is that Timor be a green place, that the number of schools increase, that the population might have enough to smile and not have nightmares at night. But there is also a Bishop who wants to make East Timor into a new Switzerland, a general who knows how to talk of democracy, and many, many others, whose intelligence made up for lack of arms and international support. 'East Timor: THE DREAM OF THE CROCODILE, is a documentary about the first country to be born in the 21st Century. A country that gained freedom through suffering, but that can now talk about it with a smile and determined hope for the future.