Oliveira's brilliant meditation on war, history and empire takes as its background and point of departure colonial war in Western Africa in the 1970s, in which guerrilla fighters ultimately defeated Portugal's superior military forces. Mired in the Angolan jungle, a group of Portuguese soldiers begin to openly question the meaning of the war and, in turn, speculate about their country's imperial history. Luís Miguel Cintra returns as the wise commander who narrates the film's brilliant flashbacks to Portugal's most spectacular military follies and defeats. From the film's mysterious opening – a rapturous tracking shot that glides around an ancient African tree – to the stunning battle sequences, Non is one of Oliveira's great late films and one of his most politically charged and outspoken works.