Please note this film contains Dutch subtitles.
What happens when God’s chosen one refuses his calling? In Habemus Papam, Nanni Moretti takes the rarely intimate moment of a papal election as the starting point for a bittersweet tale about doubt, responsibility, and freedom. When the elderly Cardinal Melville is unexpectedly elected pope, he panics. Just before his first public blessing, he quite literally flees the Vatican. What follows is a witty yet melancholic search for identity and meaning, unfolding in the eye of a global media storm. While the remaining cardinals stay in voluntary quarantine, the world outside the papal palace waits in vain for the signal of white smoke.
Moretti, who also plays the role of a hapless psychoanalyst, mixes satire with genuine empathy. He pokes fun at the rituals and formal hierarchies of the Church, but never slips into caricature. The true strength of the film lies in revealing the human vulnerability behind religious authority. Habemus Papam is a humorous yet wistful reflection on the burden of expectations — both external and internal.
For decades, Nanni Moretti has been regarded as one of the sharpest and most idiosyncratic voices in European cinema. With films like The Son’s Room (winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes), the political Il caimano, and the personal Dear Diary, he anchors seemingly light stories in profound moral questions. His style is distinctive: self-irony, philosophical undertones, and a preference for characters struggling with their place in the world.