In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis by Gianfranco Rosi
Pope Francis passed away this morning at the age of 88, after leading the Roman Catholic Church for 12 years. Born in Buenos Aires as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he leaves behind a legacy as the first Latin American pontiff and a vocal advocate for migration, climate justice, and social equity. His distinctive leadership style and openness to interreligious dialogue have inspired filmmakers across the globe to explore his life through a variety of narrative and documentary lenses.
Bergoglio, the Pope Francis / Francisco - El Padre Jorge (2015), directed by Beda Docampo Feijóo, is a Spanish-Argentine biopic that traces Bergoglio’s journey from his early days in Argentina to his election as pope. Told through the perspective of a young Spanish journalist who meets Bergoglio at the 2005 conclave, the film—starring Argentine actor Darío Grandinetti (Talk to Her, Wild Tales) in the title role—weaves flashbacks and dramatized episodes into a conventional yet heartfelt portrait of the Jesuit priest who would become the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Also from 2015 is the Italian biopic Call Me Francis / Chiamatemi Francesco, directed by Daniele Luchetti. Starring Rodrigo de la Serna as the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Sergio Hernández as the older Bergoglio—alongside Mercedes Morán and Muriel Santa Ana as Alicia Oliveira—the film chronicles Bergoglio’s rise from his early life as a teacher at a Jesuit high school in Argentina to Archbishop and Cardinal of Buenos Aires, culminating in his election as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 2017, Pope Francis make a cameo in the faith-based movie Beyond the Sun, directed by Graciela Rodríguez Gilio and Charlie Mainardi. A modern-day tale of hope, faith, and courage inspired by stories from the Bible, Beyond the Sun is a children’s adventure film in which a group of kids overcome challenges in the wilderness while searching for God in the world around them. This uplifting story is intended to spiritually engage and inspire audiences of all ages to live their best life, make good choices, and help others.
In Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (2018), German filmmaker Wim Wenders abandons the traditional interview format and instead frames Francis as a solitary speaker addressing the viewer directly. The result is a minimalist, meditative film that alternates his monologues with documentary footage from his travels and papal duties—a stylistic choice that echoes Wenders’s fascination with the tension between presence and distance.
Perhaps the most popular dramatization of Francis is The Two Popes (2019), directed by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles (City of God). Set largely within the confines of the Vatican following the 2012 VatiLeaks scandal, the film dramatizes the imagined conversations between Pope Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins) and Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce). While not a biopic in the strictest sense, Meirelles constructs a compelling two-hander that reflects on faith, reform, and ideological succession through dynamic dialogue and visual symmetry.
In In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis (2022), Italian-American documentarian Gianfranco Rosi brings his observational style to the figure of Francis, following him across nine years of papal travel through 53 countries. Struck by the overlap between the Pope’s itinerary and the locations of his own previous films (Fire at Sea, Notturno), Rosi builds a quiet, reflective collage that juxtaposes archival footage with original material to examine the contemporary world through the lens of Francis’s movement and presence.
Evgeny Afineevsky’s Francesco (2020) offers a multi-textured portrait built from tweets, archival video, rare interviews, and audio recordings. More impressionistic than journalistic, the film captures the Pope’s position on key global challenges—immigration, environmental collapse, LGBTQ+ rights—through a curated stream of media fragments that reflects the pace and overload of our digital age.
Most recently, The Pope: Answers (2025) stages an intergenerational dialogue between Francis and ten young people from different parts of the world. Structured around an informal roundtable in Rome, the documentary offers an unfiltered conversation about topics ranging from gender identity and sexuality to religious freedom and migration. Less about the Pope himself than the conversation he’s willing to enter, the film adds another layer to his evolving screen persona.
