TRAILERS

First Trailer for Gianfranco Rosi's Doc 'In Viaggio' About Pope Francis

by Alex Billington
November 2, 2022
Source: YouTube

"Do not be afraid to dream." The Match Factory has revealed a trailer for the next documentary made by award-winning filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi (best known for Fire at Sea and Notturno). His latest is titled In Viaggio, which translates in Italian to En Route, in which he follows the travels of Pope Francis. In the first nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made a total of 37 trips to 53 countries, focusing on his most important issues: poverty, migration, environment, solidarity and war. Intrigued by the fact that two of Francis's trips, the very first to the refugees landing in Lampedusa and another one in 2021 to the Middle East, mirror the itineraries of his most recent films, Rosi follows the Pope's Stations of the Cross, sees what he sees, hears what he says and creates a dialogue between archival footage of Francis' travels, images taken by Rosi himself, recent history and the state of the world today. Sounds like an intriguing concept for a film. There's not much footage in this trailer, but it does seem like it's worth a look (the film is only 80 mins, too).

Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Gianfranco Rosi's documentary In Viaggio, direct from YouTube:

The film is the portrait of a man who makes us look farther and reflect on universal themes. The first challenge of In Viaggio was to couch films made to meet the needs of television in a cinematic language. As the editing proceeded, however, the need emerged to have the account of the pope’s journeys hold a dialogue with historic material from the archives and with pieces of some of my own films. And finally to shoot new scenes. Another challenge was to create an ending for a film that is in progress, destined to remain open. A film that in following Pope Francis’ journeys in the future will tackle new themes, new reflections. –Director Gianfranco Rosi

In 2013, just after his election, Pope Francis went to Lampedusa. In 2021 he made an important journey to the Middle East, going to Iraq & Kurdistan. The same places Gianfranco Rosi depicted in Fuocoammare and Notturno. In the nine years of his pontificate Francis has made 37 journeys, visiting 53 countries. Whether in Italy, Brazil, Cuba, the United States, the African continent or Southeast Asia, his itineraries have followed the guiding thread of central themes of our time: poverty, nature, migration, condemnation of all war, solidarity. In a sort of Via Crucis, Francis has born witness to the suffering of the world and found out how difficult it is to do more than offer the comfort of his words and his presence Gianfranco Rosi has retraced the pope’s journeys, watching the films that have documented them. Out of this has come his own film and its scheme is an extremely simple one: he follows the pope, looks at what he sees, listens to what he says. In observing the pontiff as he looks at the world, Rosi has established a dialogue at a distance between the archive footage of Francis' pastoral journeys, the images of his own films, current events & recent history. Creating a balance between the linear flow of time and the memory of the cinema.

In Viaggio is directed by acclaimed Italian-American doc filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, director of the doc films Boatman, Below Sea Level, El Sicario Room 164, Sacro Gra, Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare), Notturno previously. Produced by Donatella Palermo and Gianfranco Rosi. This initially premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival playing Out of Competition. The Match Factory is handling worldwide sales. It already opened in Italy in October this year. No US release date has been set yet - stay tuned for updates. First impression?

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