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"The Two Popes" is based on the story of Pope
Benedict's 2013 dramatic retirement from the papacy and the
ascendancy of Pope Francis and imagines some of the
conversations the two men might have had.
"I did the film because I'm a big fan of Pope Francis. I think
he's a very important voice in the world today," Meirelles said
at the London film festival on Monday.
"He sees the planet as one thing and he's trying to build
bridges while everybody wants to build walls. So I decided to
make the film to know him better and even to support what he
says," he added.
"It's very honest. We show the mistakes that he's done some 30
years ago in Argentina. But in the end, he comes across like
somebody we should support," the Brazilian filmmaker said.
The film, starring Anthony Hopkins as the traditional Pope
Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as his more liberal successor, is
set mostly in a movie set replica of the ornately decorated
Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
"It was just such a great character to play, showing his flaws
and his weaknesses as well as his very positive strengths and
what he can do as a kind of leader which we desperately need in
political life these days; someone who can show us the way and
show us how to live and go back to the old Christian values,"
Pryce said.
The Netflix movie launches in U.S. movie theaters in late
November and on the streaming service in December. It is not
known whether it will be screened at the Vatican.
“If he (Francis) sees it, I hope he is amused. I hope he isn't
angry. And I hope he understands that what we've tried to
portray is the essence of the man and what he is trying to do,"
said Pryce.
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Dan Grebler)
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