Aniki-Bóbó (Great Restorations)

Introduction to the film in English | start of the film: 18:30

Aniki-Bóbó

Portugal 1942 | Manoel de Oliveira | vostEN | 72’ | digital | Cast : Nascimento Fernandes, Horácio Silva, António Santos, Fernanda Matos | D’après : Meninos Milionários de Rodrigues de Freitas

▶ Venezia Classici, Biennale di Venezia 2025

▶ 4K Restoration

A group of children loves to play on the banks of the river in Porto. One of them, the shy Carlitos, falls in love with Terezinha and becomes jealous of his rival Eduardo, the leader of the gang. When Carlitos steals a doll to try and impress Terezinha, he is wrongly suspected of a more serious crime. This forces him to confront more grown-up concepts such as guilt, fear and doing the right thing.

« With a cast consisting almost entirely of children, the action seems to take place in a republic of childhood, in which a version of courtly love is played out on the streets by day, and on its rooftops at night. There's an archaic coyness about Aniki-Bobó, but its mix of innocence and Vigo-esque mischief is still winning. » (Sight & Sound)

« The first feature-length film of Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira (I’m Going Home) is a hard-edged, unsentimental look into the world of children that anticipated many of the techniques of Italian neorealism. » (Chicago Reader)