In the Reboleira slums of Lisbon, dealer and jailbird Sombra (Pedro Ferreira) struggles to pay off an outstanding debt to a local gang boss, his increasingly desperate situation leading him through the nocturnal streets in search of cash before being forced into armed robbery. Writer/director Basil da Cunha describes After the Night as "a genre movie in a realist context", mixing a neo-noir crime narrative with an observational strand of quasi-documentary film-making to create a vérité thriller rich with a sense of location and cultural authenticity.

While the story plays out in fairly formulaic fashion, it's the incidental detail that brings this world to life: Sombra's relationship with his pet iguana; a shamefaced encounter with a scolding but maternal auntie; the exorcism rituals of a local witch doctor; and the presence of young girl played by Ana Clara Baptista de Melo Soares Barros, who all but steals the show.