Boffo: Argentina producing a major motion picture about the pope

Boffo: Argentina producing a major motion picture about the pope September 9, 2013

From Variety: 

Habemus a pope pic. And from Pope Francis’ native Argentina.

One of its most international directors, Alejandro Agresti (“The Lake House”) will direct “Historia de un cura” (A Priest’s Tale), a biopic of Jorge Mario Bergoglio from his childhood through to election in March as the head of the Catholic Church.

Bergoglio became the first Jesuit pope, the first from the southern hemisphere and the first from North or Latin America.

Rodrigo de la Serna, who played memorably opposite Gael Gaecia Bernal in Walter Salles’ “The Motorcycle Diaries,” will limn Pope Francis.

“A Priest’s Tale” is set up at Argentina’s Pampa Films (“Chinese Take-Away”) and Spain’s Pentagrama (“Before the Fall”).

Pablo Bossi (“Nine Queens,” “Son of the Bride”), one of the architects of Argentina’s film renaissance, will produce with Pentagrama’s Jose Ibanez whose credits include Oliver Stone’s “Comandante” and Emir Kusturica’s “Maradona by Kusturica.”

An origins story told in flashbacks and flash-forwards as Bergoglio flies to Rome and attends the papal conclave after the res¡gnation of Pope Benedict XVI, “A Priest’s Tale’s” will focus on Bergoglio as a person, Agresti told Variety.

He added: “More than a rapid biopic of key events, I’m more concerned with getting inside this very singular person, his decision to follow his vocation, and how he combined his faith and reason, having studied as a Jesuit for 14 years before being ordained.”

The grandson of Italians who settled in Argentina, Agresti will also portray Bergoglio’s Italian immigrant family context, his work in Buenos Aires’ villa slums, and austerity and humility, the director said.

Shooting in Argentina, Italy and Germany, where Bergoglio studied, “A Priest Tale’s” budget will be “above-average” for Argentina, “Bossi told Variety.

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