THE MOVING PICTURE BOY ARCHIVE

O FILHO DE MIL HOMENS

Title: O Filho de Mil Homens
English title: The Son of a Thousand Men
Year of release: 2025
Director: Daniel Rezende
Country of Production: Brazil
Genre: Drama, Magical Realism
Length: 2 hours, 7 minutes
Language: Portuguese (Brazilian)
Availability: A digital file is available with optional English subtitles. The film was released on Netflix on November 9, 2025.

Below: Principal boy actors: left, Miguel Martines plays Camilo; right, Enzo Ribeiro plays Crisóstomo as a child. Miguel Martines' only other acting role to date was in the short film Fogo no Canavial (Fire in the Sugarcane Field, 2024). 

Two other boys receive credits: Henrique Farias Braga (below, left) plays Camilo at 3, and Mateus Martines (below, right) plays Camilo at age 6; both these actors are only on screen for a few seconds.

Synopsis
In a small village, a lonely fisherman who has never had children yearns for a son. His sadness at not having a boy to look after is so great that he keeps in his home a doll of approximately boyish dimensions to keep him company. One day, however, he finds an actual orphan boy to take care of. The film then gradually unfolds the stories of other characters whose lives are, or are about to become, interwoven with the fisherman and his adoptive son, in what becomes a philosophical parable of the connectedness of all humanity.

The trailer for the movie can be viewed on Youtube here.

Source material
Based on the 2011 novel of the same name by the Portuguese writer Valter Hugo Mãe (born 1971). At one point in the film, we see Camilo reading a copy of Valter Hugo Mãe's children's novel O Paraíso são os Outros (Paradise is Other People, published 2014). At time of writing, none of the author's books seem to have been translated into English.

Below: Photo of actor Miguel Martines

Production photos

Miguel Martines as Camilo

Seated l-r: Johnny Massaro as Antonino, Rebeca Jamir as Isaura, Rodrigo Santoro as Crisóstomo, Miguel Martines as Camilo, Doll-Boy as Himself; standing, director Daniel Rezende

 

Screenshots