Francis: Pray for Me

Francis: Pray for me is a 2015 Argentine film, starring Darío Grandinetti as Pope Francis. The film is based on the 2013 book, Pope Francis: Life and Revolution, which was written by Francis' close friend Elisabetta Piqué who is also a correspondent for the Argentine newspaper, La Nación in Italy and the Vatican since 1999. The film was released as Papa Francisco: The Pope Francis Story in the Philippines.

Plot

The story narrates the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the man who would later become Pope Francis in the perspective of a Spanish journalist named Ana, who first met the future pope at the 2005 Papal conclave, until the naming of Bergoglio as pope at the 2013 Papal conclave.

Cast

Darío Grandinetti as Jorge Bergoglio
Silvia Abascal as Ana
Leticia Brédice as Cecilia
Laura Novoa as Regina Bergoglio
Leonor Manso as Rosa Margherita Vasallo Bergoglio
Jorge Marrale as José Bergoglio
Gabriel Gallichio as Jorge Bergoglio
Alejandro Awada as Luis
Carola Reyna as Agustina
Marta Beláustegui as Carmen

Production

The script is based on the 2013 book Pope Francis: Life and Revolution, written by journalist Elisabetta Piqué. Productor Pablo Bossi met Piqué in November 2013, and announced his intention to shoot the film. She met the script writer Beda Docampo Feijóo in January 2014, and he soon wrote the first script for the film. The actor Darío Grandinetti visited the Vatican and had a brief interview with Francis, studying him to make an accurate play. Shooting for the film began in January 2015 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Release

The film was first released in Argentina on 10 September 2015 and was later released in Spain on 18 September 2015. In the Philippines, the film was released on theaters nationwide under the title Papa Francisco: The Pope Francis Story on 30 September 2015 with Pioneer Films as distributor.

Reception

Horacio Bilbao, from the Clarín newspaper considered it a below-average film. The biography of Francis is treated like a hagiography, and the controversial aspects of his life are treated in a simplistic way. For instance, it is unclear if the character played by Alejandro Awada is supposed to be based on Horacio Verbitsky, who would be the woman asking him to ignore the political corruption scandals, and the truthfulness in the depiction of the meeting of Bergoglio and Massera.