It's the end of 1944. Japan is losing the war. By order of the mysterious Major Taniguchi, young Hiroo Onoda is sent to an island in the Philippines just before the American landing. The handful of soldiers that he takes with him into the jungle will soon discover the unknown doctrine that will bind them to this man: Secret War. For the Empire, the war is about to end. For Onoda, it will end 10 000 nights later.
In 1944 Japan, with the end of the war approaching, Lieutenant Onoda is sent to an island in the Philippines under orders to never surrender. After he arrives, his comrades die, and he is completely unaware that his country has surrendered, so he continues to fight a phantom war for thirty years, equivalent to ten thousand nights. Until reality catches up with him. This epic story and character inspired Arthur Harari to produce Onoda. Cannes discovered the director in 2019 alongside Justine Triet, with whom he cowrote Sibyl, four years after the success of his first feature film, Diamant noir (Dark Diamond) in 2015.