Pope Francis in movies, from A Man of His Word to Conclave (2025)

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word

That title was echoed this week by former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine as he recalled Pope Francis. But Wim Wenders made his documentary about the Pope back in 2018.

A year before its release he told National Post he had been approached by the Vatican to make it.

“The Vatican in the form of its minster of communications wrote to me and said ‘We are making a film with the Pope’ — not on the Pope, with the Pope — ‘and we’re looking at our options and we figured you should do it.’ And I said: ‘Thank you.'”

Wenders was raised Catholic, converted to Protestantism, and holds an honorary doctorate in theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

“I’m neither Catholic nor Protestant,” he said. “I try to be both. I figure, I’m Christian and I go into any church that I want and I have friends on all sides.”

Later, discussing the finished film, he said: “I was nervous the first time (I met Francis). The first shoot, we were ready for hours. We had prepared everything the day before. I told my team: Never will we ask him to do something again. He is not an actor.”

But when the Pope arrived, he did so alone; no entourage, no bodyguards. And the first thing he did was to shake everyone’s hand.

“He greeted every electrician,” said Wenders. “He greeted every assistant. He made it clear we’re all equal. Everybody who worked on this had a right to look him in the eye, to ask him a question, to talk to him. He made the idea of equality very clear, and we very quickly lost this shyness — wow, this is the Pope, a superstar. No; he came very modestly and humbly, and made contact with everybody.”

Wenders had met enough celebrities and heads of state (and actors) to know when such behaviour is genuine. “He’s not pretending to be cordial. He’s not acting. That’s him. He’s a genuine person who likes people genuinely,” he said.