THE TWO POPES
Narrative Feature | 125 minutes

HIFF 2018

 

Directed by
Fernando Meirelles

Produced by
Dan Lin, Jonathan Eirich, Tracey Seaward

Written by
Anthony McCarten

Featuring
Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins, Juan Minujín, Sidney Cole

2019 | English/Spanish/Italian/French/ Portuguese/German/Latin | USA/UK/Italy/Argentina

Sunday Centerpiece

WINNER: HIFF27 Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature

From Fernando Meirelles, the Academy Award-nominated director of CITY OF GOD, and three-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten, comes an intimate story of one of the most dramatic transitions of power in the last 2,000 years. Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins). Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church. Behind Vatican walls, a struggle commences between both tradition and progress, guilt and forgiveness, as these two very different men confront elements from their pasts in order to find common ground and forge a future for a billion followers around the world.

Special guest: actor Jonathan Pryce (Sunday screening only)