Saving Grace (1985 film)

Directed by Robert M. Young
Produced by Herbert F. Solow
Written by Celia Gittelson, Richard Kramer
 
Starring
Tom Conti
 Fernando Rey
 Erland Josephson
 Giancarlo Giannini
 Donald Hewlett
 Patricia Mauceri
 Marta Zoffoli
 Edward James Olmos
 
Release date: 1985
Running time: 112 min.
Language:     English
 
Saving Grace is a 1985 film produced by Herbert F. Solow, directed by Robert M. Young and starring Tom Conti, Giancarlo Giannini and Edward James Olmos.
 
It is based on a novel by Celia Gittelson with screenplay by Richard Kramer.
 
Plot
A year after his election, a youthful Pope (Conti) longs to be involved in ordinary people’s lives again, as he was when he was a priest.
 
During an audience, the Pope communicates with a deaf mute young girl whose village has no priest. Accidentally locked out of the Vatican, the Pope travels to the small impoverished and demoralized village, his identity concealed by his beard growth. He realizes that the people need to rebuild a dilapidated aqueduct but, more importantly, that they must regain their community spirit and self-sufficiency. Without expertise and, initially, only the help of some street-wise orphans, he starts construction. All this is watched skeptically by a mysterious neighbour played by Giannini and opposed by local thugs led by Ciolini (Olmos) whose ill-gotten gains depend on the village remaining overly dependent on outsiders.
 
Although this movie is often classified as a comedy, it has serious themes, including what it takes for a community to develop resilience and how redemption occurs. The "cry" "heard" from a mute girl for a priest in her village comes at a time when the young Pope is going through a spiritual crisis. When he locks himself out of his lofty Vatican world, he makes his way to Montepetra (Mount of Peter, or stone) and begins to grasp his true vocation again by challenging tyranny and helping return water (baptismal grace) to the community to restore their strength. In Christian thought, there is always sacrifice of those who initially resist, then come by grace. It is a saving grace, as even the most skeptical of the community discover.