“Conversation with the Pope”, a documentary directed by the Spaniards Jordi Évole and Màrius Sanchez, reveals the explosive exchanges of the sovereign pontiff with ten young Spanish speakers on subjects such as abortion, homosexuality, feminism or even gender identity. .
Ten young people, mostly from South America, were selected from among 150 young adults from around the world for questions they wanted to ask Pope Francis. The result is a documentary titled Conversation with the Pope, available from Wednesday April 5 on the Disney+ platform. Pushed to his limits by young people aged 20 to 25 – Catholics or not – with very diverse profiles, the sovereign pontiff lends himself to an explosive game of questions and answers, willingly breaking the codes on subjects of concern to Generation Z.
From feminism to migration, mental health and LGBT+ rights, a wide range of social issues, often heavy, are discussed without taboo. Even the most unexpected, like when a creator of pornographic content talks about her relationship to masturbation.
If some can not hold back their tears by confiding their personal wounds, none takes tweezers when addressing the pope, even if it means addressing him as familiar terms or criticizing the attitude of the Catholic Church. A freedom of tone which contrasts with the traditional interviews granted by the bishop of Rome.
Without taboo
“What do you think of church members or priests who promote hate and use the Bible to support hate speech?”, asks Celia, who defines herself as a non-binary person. “These people are infiltrators who use the Church for their personal passions, for their personal narrowness”criticizes the pope.
The questions sometimes provoke lively debates, in particular on pornography or the management of cases of pedocrime, like Juan, victim of a cleric who challenges the pope on his file after a sanction from the Holy See deemed insufficient. “It hurts me that the sentence was light”answers François, committing himself that “the matter be reconsidered”.
Far from being shocked, the sovereign pontiff maintains his usual openness to sexual orientation and gender identity. “Each person is a child of God. The Church cannot close the door to anyone”, he insists. Somehow, he also tries to explain the position of the Church on abortion or the non-access of women to the priesthood, without convincing his audience.
For the two Spanish co-directors, Jordi Évole and Màrius Sanchez, the objective was to “bringing together two worlds that don’t usually communicate and seeing one of the most influential people on the planet interact with a group of young people whose way of life sometimes clashes head-on with the principles of the Church”.
“We treated him with less reverence than is used to (…) We use a sense of humor, sarcasm”, explains to AFP Màrius Sanchez, congratulating himself on having created with him a “relationship of trust and frankness”.
Papal Confidences
The 80-minute film, made from a four-hour conversation in a very cinematic style, was shot in June 2022 in Rome’s popular Pigneto district. He came out a few days before Easter, the high point of the Christian calendar, and after Francis was hospitalized for bronchitis.
The documentary opens with rare images of François seated at his desk and in the refectory of the Sainte-Marthe residence where he lives, in the Vatican. We also discover lighter sequences, nourished by jokes or secrets about his personal life. The former archbishop of Buenos Aires also explains that he does not have a mobile phone. “I’m a bit anachronistic”, he admits. As for his Twitter accounts, followed by some 54 million people, “it is my secretaries who manage them”, he confides