The Shoes of the Fisherman

Kiril Lakota is released after twenty years in a Siberian labour camp and sent to Rome. When the pope dies the conclave deadlocks and this non-Italian is elected. At the same time war is close between China and the Soviet Union, and there is famine in China. The new pope is forced into a political choice. The subject is not faith but how much of itself the institution will agree to spend. The decision at the end concerns the entire property of the church, and it is presented not as a religious gesture but as an open political move. The form is heavy and full of ceremony. The conclave is shown in detail: the doors sealed, the ballots, the result given in smoke. The Vatican interiors were shot on sets built at Cinecittà. The interesting thing about the production is its timing. The film came out in 1968 and depicted the election of a non-Italian pope; in life that happened in 1978, after a gap of more than four hundred and fifty years. The source is Morris West's novel. Anthony Quinn plays the pope, Laurence Olivier the Soviet leader and Oskar Werner the theologian under investigation. David Janssen and John Gielgud are in the cast. Michael Anderson directs. Who it is for: viewers curious about church politics and cold war drama. Who it is not for: anyone with no patience for slow tempo; the film is long and talk-heavy.