14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 27 December 2019 — Through the “Weekly Packet” of audiovisuals that circulates so widely in Cuba, this week an excellent copy of Netflix’s film The Two Popes has reached viewers on the Island. The film addresses, as fiction, the moment of the resignation of Benedict XVI and the surprising rise of an Argentine cardinal, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, to the Throne of Saint Peter.
But beyond the political and ecclesiastical interest that the film is generating, with the starring roles masterfully interpreted by Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, the most interesting element — in my opinion — is the relationship established between two human beings with different world views and diametrically opposed approaches to many subjects. As the minutes of a finely woven script pass, each character ends up influencing the vision of the other while showing his own limits and faults.
Although many will believe that this film is about dogma, faith and the current situation of the Catholic Church, in reality I think it is a song to understanding, to seeking the common point shared by all people, beyond their religion, their ideology or their life experiences. This fictional story is a temple to words and the exchange of opinions as the most effective way to understand the other.
I hope that The Two Popes will circulate widely in Cuba and that it even reaches the screens of those who, in some protected office and surrounded by the paraphernalia of power, have severed all possibility of expression, conversation and free debate in our society. They are the ones who most need to watch this movie.
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