Italian director Nanni Moretti has a new film coming out later this year or at the beginning of next titled Habemus Papam. The translation from the Latin is "We have a pope!" - the announcement given by the senior cardinal who presents the new pontiff to the crowd gathered in St Peter's Square.
The film focuses on a reluctant pontiff who as the director puts it "seems crushed by the weight and responsibility of his role." Moretti's pope, played by Michel Piccoli, suffers from "depression" and a feeling of "personal inadequacy."
Moretti says the film "contains a painful core, but wrapped in a light tone."
Anyone who has watched the progress of Benedict won't have any difficulty making the connection. Benedict comes across as a pope who seems out-of-his-depth at times... an academic by nature who has hasn't taken easily to the big arena. His papacy is complicated by the dark history of sexual abuse and the cover-up he had a hand in orchestrating.
Is Benedict a depressive? Some observers believe that following the death of John Paul, the then cardinal Ratzinger worked behind-the-scenes to rustle up support for his candidacy. Maybe it's a question of being careful of what you wish for - certainly Benedict is in a lot deeper than perhaps even he ever anticipated given the ongoing abuse scandal.
The depressed pope in Habemus Papam requires intervention. His aides go so far as to call in a psychiatrist, played by Moretti himself.
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