Voyage to the Beginning of the World
1997 film by Manoel de Oliveira
Voyage to the Beginning of the World (Portuguese: Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo, French: Voyage au début du monde) is a 1997 Portuguese-French drama film directed by Manoel de Oliveira and starring Marcello Mastroianni. The film was selected as the Portuguese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. It was Mastroianni's final film.
Plot
French actor Afonso visits the Portuguese village where his father once left. He is accompanied by the film director Manoel who hereby returns to the places of his childhood. Together with two other actors who serve as translators they make it to the remote village and meet Afonso's estranged kin.
Cast
Marcello Mastroianni as Manoel
Jean-Yves Gautier as Afonso
Leonor Silveira as Judite
Diogo Dória as Duarte
Isabel de Castro as Maria Afonso
Cécile Sanz de Alba as Christina
José Pinto as José Afonso
Adelaide Teixeira as Woman
Isabel Ruth as Olga
Manoel de Oliveira as Driver
José Maria Vaz da Silva as Assistant
Fernando Bento as Man 1
Mário Moutinho as Man 2
Jorge Mota as Man 3
Sara Alves as Girl
Helder Esteves as Boy
Accolades
The film was screened out of competition at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Prize.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Voyage to the Beginning of the World” as 1997 film by Manoel de Oliveira. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1997 film by Manoel de Oliveira. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1152657. The first chronological checks are 1997.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Voyage to the Beginning of the World”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Voyage to the Beginning of the World primary sources, Voyage to the Beginning of the World archive and Voyage research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Voyage to the Beginning of the World”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Voyage to the Beginning of the World” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.