On October 4 a film dedicated to the international travels of Pope Francis during his first 9 years of pontificate was presented by Gianfranco Rosi. The work has been inserted out of Concorso in the 79th Venice Biennale Film Festival and as of this date is available in theaters, 190 cinemas and over 100 parish cinemas.
The author is a documentarist, winner of the Leone d'oro a Venezia in 2013 with "Sacro GRA" and of the Orso d'oro a Berlino in 2016 with "Fuocoammare", and on this occasion he has undertaken an unprecedented challenge by making a film based, for the most part, on the images of the Vatican Archive related to the apostolic visits made by the Pope. But not turned from him.
The author's intentions
The author has explained that he wanted to create an opera that follows the Pope in movement, accompanying him on a journey through the dramatic places of our times, between Lampedusa and Iraq. A film that wants to be "a tribute to those who want to change something" and that, Rosi hopes, will be "seen in the theater, in the dark and on the big screen".
Throughout the Pope's followings and the themes he faces in his speeches, the interest has been to draw a map of the human condition, illustrated by the pilgrimage of the Pope around the world. By now he has made 37 trips, from Brazil to Cuba, from the United States to Africa, to Southeast Asia, visiting a total of 59 countries.
A vicenda ancora "aperta".
The great material at disposal (800 hours of images in total) has been synthesized in eighty minutes, which describes making the pope's path, destined to change even more in time, remain "open". And, in any case, the images are concluded with an airplane on the road, during a trip, which conveys the idea of an evolving vision.
We are therefore here to see a chapter of a short history of torture.
Letter from the registar
The regist has given a personal reading of the great material at his disposal, in the conviction that in the images there is the spirit of a man who makes us look beyond, and reflect on universal themes. In the choice of the images, he adds unpublished pictures made by himself, when he was invited to follow some papal missions.
Temi of the video
The itineraries of "In Viaggio" follow the red line of the central themes of our time: poverty, nature, migrations, the condemnation of any war, solidarity. Gradually the story of what is today's world comes together. Rosi shows the Pope on the borderline, protested in the attempt to find that humanity stalled and lost in life.
It begins with the first apostolic visit to Lampedusa, on 8 July 2013, after the most recent tragedy at sea - where Francis loudly affirms: "In this world of globalization we are expired in the globalization of indifference. We are abandoned to the sophistication of the other"; then he goes on to describe the visit to the martyred territories of Iraq on March 7, 2021, where the Pope makes an appeal against war: "we reaffirm our conviction that fraternity is stronger than fratricide, that hope is stronger than death, that peace is stronger than war".
Schema of the film
In a sorta Via Crucis, Francesco is a witness of the world's sophistication and experiences the difficulty of doing more, beyond the comfort of the papal words and his presence. The scheme of the film is extremely simple: we follow the Pope, we watch what he sees, we listen to what he says. In observing the Pope who guards the world, Rosi imposes a distant dialogue between the flow of the archive of pastoral journeys, the images of his cinema, the present and recent history. Creating a balance between the linear time travel and the memory of cinema.
Intenti of the film
A documentary that the director himself has defined in an interview as "experimental", explaining that he wanted to make an opera that follows the Pope in movement, accompanying the spectator in a film that travels through the dramatic places of our times. A film that wants to be "a tribute to those who want to change something".
The Pope's description
The Pontefice described in the film is not in Rome, but he himself becomes a diplomat and carries us through the corners of the world affected by the dramas of our times. The director was particularly interested in showing his journey outside the Vatican, almost as if through the Pope's shadow and the fears he faces in his speeches, it would be possible to draw a map of the human condition.
Very often a very suggestive image is used: the one of the camera that shows the pope in the air, on his papal car, while he crosses the streets of cities and different places. An image that creates the idea of the pope's impact on the world.
Another thing that the film highlights is the ability of this Pope to know how to ask for forgiveness, even personally. In the film we see him in Canada, when he delivers the scues to the natives on behalf of the Church, but we also see him returning from Chile, asking for the scues personally. "This - says the journalist - for me is a moment of great impact, because to recognize one's own mistakes is something profoundly "divine".
Having had the opportunity to watch hours and hours of images of Pope Francis has given the author of the film the perception of his ability to express himself at various levels: with journalists, with people on the road, with other religious authorities. He is a Pope who speaks to believers and non-believers. I can never forget - he underlined - his vigilance in the Philippines after the tragedy of the typhoon when he was attacking the people".
"Tutto quello che dice Bergoglio per me che sono laico è un mondo che comunque mi appartiene, perché sono discorsi universali che molti politici dovrebbero adottare".
