Director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde follows up the blockbuster Sound of Freedom with a powerfully emotional biopic of an indomitable woman. Cabrini stars Italian actress Cristiana Dell’Anna as the revered nun in her nascent steps to sainthood. Maria Francesca Cabrini arrived in New York City on March 31, 1889, with her missionary sisters. Their goal was to save orphaned Italian children from a cruel fate on the streets. Mother Cabrini encountered hideous racism, sexism, and xenophobia but refused to abandon her righteous cause. She fought City Hall, the Catholic Church, ignorance, and violence to create a network of global institutions that continues her work today.
Monteverde “was attracted to [Mother Cabrini’s] story because of her desire to serve others” and laments that “we live in times that are very driven by politics.” He’s proud to make “stories and movies that unite, which is the opposite of politics.” Monteverde extols Mother Cabrini’s virtues. She cared for the “human being” that “had no voice or dignity. She was not about immigration. She was about the immigrant.”
Monteverde refutes the brand of a faith-based filmmaker, “Putting labels is one of the most cruel things we can do to each other. Because once you label something, you automatically exclude an audience. I like to make movies for everybody. When they label my movies in any particular way, I know that label is automatically going to screw an audience. It’s just dangerous.” Please watch above and read below our complete interview with Alejandro Monteverde.
Cabrini
4/5
- Release Date
- March 8, 2024
- Director
- Alejandro Monteverde
- Cast
- Cristiana Dell’Anna , David Morse , Romana Maggiora Vergano , Federico Ielapi , Virginia Bocelli , Rolando Villazón , Giancarlo Giannini , John Lithgow
- Runtime
- 145 Minutes
- Writers
- Rod Barr , Alejandro Monteverde
A Heroic Figure
MovieWeb:Cabrini tackles racism, xenophobia, and sexism. It’s coming at a time when those three issues are omnipresent in American society. What can you tell our readers about how they should interpret the film and this problem?
Alejandro Monteverde: I was attracted to her story because of her desire to serve others. We live in times that, unfortunately, are very driven by politics. And for me, politics divide. I like to make stories and movies that unite, which is the opposite of politics. I like to propose themes that create social dialogues. Because if we’re not talking about something, for a fact, there’s not going to be a change. I think change happens with dialogues about difficult things. I am attracted to stories like that.
Mother Cabrini came to a country where there was a lot of discrimination against her own race, against the Italians. But for her, it was not about the Italians. It was about anybody that had no voice, anybody that had no dignity. She was all about human dignity. She was not about immigration. She was about the immigrant.
Alejandro Monteverde: She was about the human being, the children in the streets, and not just in the U.S. She started in the U.S. After she finished her hospital and her orphanages — the film only tackles the first institutions to open — but after that, she went to open over 60 more institutions all around the world. And she was facing all kinds of challenges in each different country. Each country has its own set of problems. I can only imagine what she went through in countries like Nicaragua, Mexico, China, and so on. Her life was very, very heroic.
Alejandro Monteverde: Her ultimate battle was not against any of the things you just mentioned. It was against her own mortality. She was told that she had one or two years to live. That in itself, when you put mortality on this scale, almost everything else loses importance because you have a year to live. I think that gives you a different perspective on things, and in many ways makes you more powerful.
4:09
Exclusive: Cristiana Dell’Anna & David Morse Preach Kindness in Cabrini
Cristiana Dell’Anna portrays Mother Cabrini on her beginning journey to sainthood. David Morse co-stars as the archbishop who underestimates her will.
The Constant Battle for Justice
MW:You’ve got David Morse, John Lithgow, Giancarlo Giannini, and Jeremy Bobb. These are tremendous actors, but Cristiana Dell’Anna is a revelation here. What can you tell us about casting her?
Alejandro Monteverde: We all knew in this film that we needed to find the eyes of Mother Cabrini. There are very few pictures of her. But I could tell in the pictures that I saw of her, she had those eyes of compassion and love. But I also knew that those eyes needed to also become the expression of a fighter. Because Mother Cabrini was in a constant fight, a constant battle for justice, fighting for social justice continuously. So I needed to find an actress that had that. She could actually go from having the most loving eyes to having the most defiant eyes. She was able to transition quickly, per se. That’s what they told me about her inner power as an actress.
MW: You’re coming off a monster hit with Sound of Freedom. You’ve just made another superb film. I’ll dare say that you’re on a roll. What can you say, in general, to the idea of a faith-based film like this out there and attracting an audience?
Monteverde: I am very against labels. Putting labels is one of the most cruel things we can do to each other, to products, to films. Because once you label something, you automatically exclude an audience. I like to make movies for everybody. When they label my movies in any particular way, I know that label is automatically going to exclude an audience. It’s just dangerous. But I’m very happy that we were able to survive all the labels that were thrown at Sound of Freedom. I just hope that this movie doesn’t go through that with those labels. Because this is a film that speaks a universal language. I don’t know anybody that is against what Mother Cabrini was fighting for. I just hope that the film gets a shot.
Alejandro Monteverde: We’re coming out right now against Dune. I just hope that for this particular film, our billboard is the audience. We need to create a word of mouth. We need a lot of people to come see the film. So if they like the film, they can go and tell other people about it.
Cabrini is currently in theaters from Angel Studios. You can watch the trailer below:
