It’s fair to say that Martin Scorsese is Team Pope.
The Vatican announced Monday that it will host a special screening of the Scorsese-produced documentary Dias, the last dream of Pope FrancisIn Rome on April 21, the first anniversary of Francis’ death.
Aldeas is a community cinema project run by Pope Francis’ Scholas Occurrentes Global Educational Movement that holds workshops around the world to help local communities create scripted short films that celebrate their “unique identities, histories and values.” The documentary follows the film initiative across Italy, Indonesia and Gambia, and includes Scorsese’s visit to his grandfather’s village in Sicily, where he works with local young people to make their own film. It includes the latest in-depth interview of Pope Francis on camera shortly before his death and several behind-the-scenes conversations between the Pope and the Oscar-winning director.
“This film is a tribute to the Holy Father,” Scorsese said in a statement. “It honors his memory by embodying the spirit of his service and his dream of creating a culture more humane than ever before. At this moment in history, I believe this is not just a dream, but a necessity.”
The Vatican will hold a special screening of the film on Tuesday, April 21, a year after Pope Francis’ death, just steps from where he lived and died.
On Monday, the Vatican revealed several preliminary images from the film (see below).
The new film comes amid a weeks-long dispute between the current Pope, Pope Leo XIV, and US President Donald Trump regarding the US-Israeli war against Iran. After Liu called Trump’s threat that “the entire civilization is going to die” “really unacceptable,” he lashed out at the president, posting on the Social Truth website that the first US-born pope was “weak on crime, terrible on foreign policy.” Trump also posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, which he later removed amid backlash from American Christians.
In the new episode of Last week tonight On Sunday, host John Oliver mocked Trump for confronting the leader of the Catholic Church, saying the president was “on an epic streak of picking losing battles.”
Vice President J.D. Vance, a convert to Catholicism, also weighed in by suggesting that the pope “be careful when he talks about theological issues.
Over the weekend, the pope, who is currently on a tour of Africa, said it was “absolutely not in my interest” to debate Trump about the Iran war, but that he would continue to preach the Gospel message of peace.
The film was directed by Claire Tavernor and Johnny Shipley Dias, the last dream of Pope Francis, Produced by Aldeas Scholas Films in association with Sikelia Productions and Massive Owl Productions. LBI Entertainment and Double Agent are handling sales of the film, with all proceeds reinvested into the Aldeas Initiative.
