Metrograph

After Fire at Sea and Notturno, two films addressing, among other things, the subject of forced migration, Rosi turned his attention to a voluntary voyager, the man born in Buenos Aires as Jorge Mario Bergoglio who, in the nine years covered in The Travels of Pope Francis paid visits to 59 countries in six continents, spreading a message of peace to a world at war. A dynamically edited found-footage assemblage stitched together from countless hours of television broadcasts which, while avoiding any didactic narration, manages to speak volumes concerning the insoluble contradictions of the pontiff’s global mission—not least that this tireless advocate for the impoverished is eternally cocooned in the trappings of luxury.

Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

Introduction by director Gianfranco Rosi on Sunday, June 21st