„Non“, ou a Vã Glória de Mandar

Episodes from entire military history of Portugal are told through flashbacks as a professorish soldier recounts them while marching through a Portuguese African colony in 1974. He easily draws his comrades into philosophical musings, and the little contingent suffers badly at the hands of the local military opposition.
“The brigade of Salazar’s Portuguese soldiers in the Portuguese African colony of Angola in 1974 serves as a metaphor for Portuguese history. Oliveira gives us a fascinating fictional and a real history lesson about Portugal’s downfall lets us know ‘the truth is secret and without explanation’, as he lays on us his gloomy anti-war message that wars result only in more futility and empires only leave ruins. Oliveira echoes the poet Luís de Camões, that what makes a country great is explorations and discoveries and not empire building.” (Dennis Schwartz)

Supporting film: O CONQUISTADOR CONQUISTADO 2012, Manoel de Oliveira, 14 Min

From the collection of the Cinemateca Portuguese and with support from the Österreichischen Filmmuseum

further screening: Nov. 27, 20:30 Filmmuseum