The last year in Luanda

In 1974, a revolution in Lisbon took hundreds of thousands of Portuguese living in Angola by surprise. From that day on, the unstoppable collapse of an entire society began, which, like a sinking ship, was doomed to destruction and ruin. In a matter of months, three hundred thousand Portuguese were forced to abandon everything and flee, embarking on an air and sea bridge that marked the largest exodus in the history of this people. They left behind their homes, cars, and even pets. Businesses, factories, shops, and farms were abandoned while Luanda, the capital of the jewel in the crown of the Portuguese empire, was shaken by a civil war that spread to the rest of Angolan territory. Three liberation movements, whose armies had been defeated on April 25, 1974, were again active and fought among themselves for the power left vacant by the Portuguese Armed Forces. It is in this scenario of total social disorientation and widespread insecurity that Nuno, an adventurer who has for years traversed the skies of the Angolan hinterland in his airplane, Regina, and their son move, in an extraordinary struggle to survive the daily violence, political persecution, intrigues, and betrayals that make Luanda a desperate city. This is the story of courage and self-sacrifice of a couple caught by surprise, like thousands of others, in a process of degradation due to the Army's refusal to defend its own compatriots in favour of a movement that was an enemy until recently, the politicians' disinterest, the total incapacity of the Lisbon government to impose the terms of an agreement signed in Alvor and constantly violated in Angola, and the military intervention of the two world powers involved in a cold war fought through regional armies.