by Matthew Pejkovic
Angel Studios, the media company and movie studio known for The Chosen TV series, made waves in the feature film world last year with the release of Sound of Freedom, an action thriller based on true-events that struck a nerve with pundits, raking in $250 million at the global box-office.
While Angel Studios have released smaller features following the success of Sound of Freedom, the large-scale biopic Cabrini will surely test the box-office mettle of the Utah based studio when released in conjunction with International Women’s Day.
Directed by Alejandro Monteverde (Sound of Freedom, Bella), Cabrini tells the story of Saint Francis Cabrini, an Italian born Catholic sister and founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1887, Cabrini sought the approval of Pope Leo XIII to establish missions in China. The Pope urged her instead to travel to the United States, where in New York City a rising number of Italian immigrants – especially children – were struggling to survive in extreme poverty. Mother Cabrini’s dedication to her mission – often in hostile conditions – led her on the path to become the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint by the Catholic Church.
Despite the legacy Cabrini left behind, Monteverde confesses to have not known about the revered religious figure. “I didn’t know anything about her, and everything I learned about her was by reading the screenplay, the first draft that was sent to me, and I saw a great opportunity to shine a light on her life,” said Monteverde. “In many ways, it felt like she was the forgotten saint, and I wanted to continue her legacy by creating this cinematic odyssey about her life.”
Pivotal to the success of Cabrini was the casting of the title character, with Italian actress Cristiana Dell’Anna (Gomorrah) fame taking on the role. For Monteverde, it was pivotal that an Italian be cast as the film’s lead to ensure authenticity was achieved in the retelling of Mother Cabrini’s life story, which would also include a large portion of the film’s dialogue spoken in Italian.
“In the beginning, we didn’t plan to shoot the movie in Italian” said Monteverde. “What was beautiful about this project is (that it) almost took a voice of its own. All I had to do was listen to what the project wanted. So, the more we explored the angles of how we wanted to tell her story, the more we started hearing that we needed an Italian actress, and that’s how I ended up meeting Cristiana.”
For Dell’Anna, Cabrini delivered an opportunity to remind the world of the achievements that Frances Cabrini, and other women lost in history, accomplished during the 19th century. For Cabrini, this included a legacy of educational institutions, orphanages, and hospitals founded to serve the sick and the poor across the world.
“So much of our human history, not just American history or Italian history, was actually carried on by women,” said Dell’Anna. “To find out that so much was done by this woman, it was just another proof of how little we know about what kind of people we are today, of the work, the amount of work, hidden, forgotten work that women have done throughout history… I was happy that this story came to life because of this reason, because we can now continue shifting, changing the narrative, enriching it with things that we never imagined.”
Mother Cabrini’s mission to help Italian immigrants in New York was met with opposition from powerful figures, both in the church and the corridors of political power. In Cabrini, this is personified in the fictional Mayor Gould (John Lithgow), who used his office to place all matter of obstacles in her way; and Archbishop Michael Corrigan (David Morse), whose complicated legacy included neglecting the needs of Italian immigrants; this involved not allowing Italians to build their own churches or attend Mass in Irish churches, unless they did so in the basement.
“(Corrigan) is definitely somebody who’s lost his way,” said Morse. “He feels like he is doing the work of God, and he is so far from doing the work of God. He’s not in the streets. He’s not there with (Cabrini). He’s making the Italians worship in the basement of the church rather than the sanctuary of the church.
“He had a lot to learn. He thought he was learning, went to Rome, went to the American university over there, was a big deal. Thought he knew a lot, and he knew stuff in that way. But the stuff of what we would now call sainthood, he was not even close to it.”
Mother Cabrini’s calling to serve the needs of Italian immigrants in New York City – and the ambition and passion for which she would do so – would later see her given the title of Patron Saint of Immigrants. With immigration and homelessness hot political issues in the United States, Monteverde hopes that Cabrini will “create social dialogue about the dignity of the people who are living on the streets.
“How many times do we walk by and see somebody in the street begging for money?” asked Monteverde. “I mean, it’s a lot easier to give them money than to actually spend a little time with them to ask their name… spending and giving time to me is more valuable, because you don’t know if all they need is just a gesture of love, which is your time, and make them feel human and have a conversation with them.
“Maybe the conversation is a profound conversation with the people that are not as lucky as all the people that have homes and are not living on the streets… and that’s what made Mother Cabrini so powerful, indeed, and hopefully a lot of people are inspired by her gesture of love throughout her years on this earth.”
Cabrini is in cinemas 7 March 2024
