In Viaggio

"In 2013, just after his election, Pope Francis went to Lampedusa. In 2021 he made an important journey to the Middle East, going to Iraq and Kurdistan. The same places that Gianfranco Rosi had depicted in Fuocoammare and Notturno. In the nine years of his pontificate Francis has made thirty-seven journeys, visiting fifty-three countries. Whether in Italy, Brazil, Cuba, the United States, the African continent or Southeast Asia, his itineraries have followed the guiding thread of the central themes of our time: poverty, nature, migration, condemnation of all war, solidarity. In a sort of Via Crucis, Francis has born witness to the suffering of the world and found out how difficult it is to do more than offer the comfort of his words and his presence Gianfranco Rosi has retraced the pope’s journeys, watching the films that have documented them. Out of this has come his own film and its scheme is an extremely simple one: he follows the pope, looks at what he sees, listens to what he says. In observing the pontiff as he looks at the world, Rosi has established a dialogue at a distance between the archive footage of Francis’ pastoral journeys, the images of his own films, current events and recent history. Creating a balance between the linear flow of time and the memory of the cinema."
(Mostra Internationale d'Arte Cinematografica - Biennale di Venezia)