Cristiana Dell' Anna as Mother Cabrini
Cabrini is a fictionalized biopic of the life of Mother Francesca Cabrini. Born in 1850 in Italy, Mother Cabrini dreamed of establishing a Catholic mission in China. The Pope instead persuades her to start in New York, where huge numbers of Italian immigrants were suffering dire poverty and persecution. She was physically fragile (TB). This emphasizes how much she merited the accolade that was finally posthumously bestowed upon her by the Pope in 1946, when she became the first US citizen (albeit Italian-American) to be canonized and is now the Patron Saint of all Immigrants (Frances Xavier Cabrini).
Given the fact that the world demographics have changed in the last few years, with mass immigration becoming common place, a film about an amazing woman like Francesca Cabrini gains a powerful new resonance. She was repeatedly refused, by the Vatican, the opportunity to run missions overseas and build her dream of an Empire of Hope, because she was a woman, but Mother Cabrini (1850-1917) adamantly refused to back down, even before the Pope.
At the turn of the 20th Century, women had very few rights. They did not have the vote and could not even own land. But Mother Cabrini (beautifully played by the charismatic Cristiana Dell’ Ana) was not only a pioneer, she was an entrepreneur at heart. Her achievements, seen in retrospect, rivals others such as Rockefeller or Vanderbilt. Her organization today has fulfilled much of her dream, and Orphanages and Hospitals run by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are now established all over the world.
This is a tale of female empowerment (the film was rightly timed to be released for International Woman’s Day) because Mother Cabrini was not about to let sexism, or racism stop her. As she told the Pope, when she finally managed to obtain an audience: “The world is too small for what I intend to do”. However, eventually being granted permission from Pope Leone XIII (Giancarlo Giannini) was not enough to persuade the Irish Archbishop Corrigan of New York (David Morse) to help her set up an orphanage, primarily for destitute Italian orphaned children that ran wild in the streets of New York.
Cristiana Dell'Anna as Mother Cabrini and Federico Ielpai as Paolo
The Five Points neighbourhood of this city, (also prominently featured in Martin Scorcese’s Gangs of New York), was a rat-infested slum area, with mud streets and rotting rubbish, well out of sight of the well-to-do New Yorkers who lived on the West Side. Many survived sleeping in the sewers and damp basements surrounded by filth: “The rats have it better than the children of five points.”
Neither Mayor Gould (John Lithgow) nor the archbishop welcomed any changes to the status quo or the upsetting of any apple carts. But this was a task Mother Cabrini knew how to exercise to perfection. No one was a better expert at swatting hornet’s nests. Getting under everyone’s skin, she fought on and finally managed to be granted a vacant Jesuit Monastery, abandoned due to their having failed to find water. A minor problem for Mother Cabrini, who organized her many child wards into an efficient bucket-chain gang, to get water from the local river up to the house. When she decided they also needed a hospital, the same problems arose, no one would countenance a woman, and a mere Italian immigrant at that, running a hospital:
“[ We Italians] built Rome; I think we can build a hospital!”
Her task was all the more relevant if we consider that between 1889 and 1910, there was a major Italian diaspora, when no fewer than two million Italians arrived in New York. Mainly rural workers, they had fled poverty, many flushed off the land by the mazzadria sharecropping (limited tenancies) and also, because, over generations, land had been subdivided to such an extent, that no family could subsist on such tiny plots.
But these hopeful immigrants merely went from poverty to misery. Many found themselves dying of disease and starvation in New York, where their presence was not welcome. They were seen as ignorant due to their illiteracy and inability to speak English and found it impossible to find a way out, despite being hard workers. Health & Safety was nobody’s concern at the time, so many died on construction sites, leaving behind even more orphans. Mother Cabrini was the right person at the right time.
‘Cabrini’s’ art direction and production is mesmerizing. The mise-en-scène is superbly put together. Many period films stumble as they sanitize the sets, and everything looks clean and new. Here in ‘Cabrini.’ you can really smell that dirt, the stagnant waters, the animal’s dung, and the filth in which the newly-arrived immigrants were forced to survive. Either way, the massive sets were enhanced by CGI and period-accurate design, illustrating the grinding poverty. Meanwhile, the dialogue reveals the depth of prejudice directed at anyone who was darker-skinned, from whatever country.
But this is not a film about holier than thou religiousness, this was a woman who was above all, practical. She was a warrior who fought for humanity, finding strength in her faith. She wore her nun habit as if it were a coat of armour, aware that it held a power of its own. She learnt to ignore the “stay where you belong” comments, the bigotry, and misogyny for she was involved in warfare in all but name.
Mexican director José Alejandro Gómez Monteverde started out with Bella (2006) that won the top prize (People’s Choice Award) at the Toronto International Film Festival. He went on to shoot Sound of Freedom in 2018, starring Jim Caviezel. This was based on the true story of Tim Ballard’s heroic fight to rescue abducted children from sex traffickers. It was finally released in 2023, (when Angels Studio finally acquired it from Disney), and it went on to become an instant success.
Despite the fact that Mother Cabrini's team of Sisters were equally devoted and hard-working, Monteverde has barely filled them out as individual characters, which is a shame. We do not get enough of a feel of how they worked together. Given the film is long, at 142 minutes, you would have thought there was time to work on avoiding this. Mother Cabrini for all her strength, also could have benefited from more rounding off, hard to do when she is a saint, I suppose. How to humanize her? Could giving Cabrini vulnerabilities, foibles and imperfections of her own, ‘offend’ some people?
Romana Maggiora ( Vittoria) and Cristiana Dell'Anna (Cabrini)
The most intimate moments are seen in the friendship that develops between the prostitute Vittoria (Romana Maggiora) and Cabrini, where some insights are allowed come out. Cabrini was probably genuinely hermetic, unwilling to reveal her health problems and vulnerabilities. Her resilience being such that she, even to herself, seldom, if ever, removed her suit of armour.
Mother Cabrini’s ‘Empire of Hope’ would never have happened without her indomitable spirit, resilience and single- minded sense of purpose. She was driven, acutely aware that her health was fragile and there was no time to spare, no time to hang around waiting, she had to be proactive, as women at that time were not expected to be, let alone a nun. Nevertheless, she defied the worst prognosis and lived to the ripe age of 67, having succeeded to boot.
John Lithgow as Mayor Gould
‘Cabrini’ is totally gripping and absorbing with the period feel achieved to perfection and all the main characters including the children, are believable and interesting: from the weak and ineffectual priest who fails to meet them when their ship docks, to the unpleasant Mayor Gould who seriously and dangerously tries to disrupt her plans. Ever shrewd, Mother Cabrini uses the mayor’s own play of politics, to work round him, until he admits: - “And I thought you were new to all this… you would have made an excellent man!
To which she wisely responds: - “Oh no, Men could never do what we do”.
CABRINI (2024) by Alejandro Monteverde
Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment are delighted to announce the release of the stirring and uplifting biopic, Cabrini.
Following its hugely successful US release in March, and UK release in 200+ cinemas, Cabrini will be heading to Blu-Ray, DVD & Digital Download platforms on 27th May.
CREW: Director: Alejandro Monteverde/ Screenplay: Rod Barr/ Story: Rod Barr & Alejandro Monteverde /Producers: Leo Severino & Jonathan Sanger/ Executive Producers: Francesca Cabrini/, J Eustace Wolfington, Eduardo Verástegui, Jason Ryan Cannon, Martie Gillin, Mimi Heany, Cynthia Kramer Miller, and others/ DOP: Gorka Gómez Andreu/ Production design: Carlos Lagunas/ Editor:F Brian Scofield /Music: Gene Back/ Music supervisor: Mary Ramos / VFX Supervisor: Brian Battles /Sound Designer: Nathan Ruyle/ Costume: Alisha Silverstein
CAST: Cristiana Dell’Anna: Cabrini / David Morse: Archbishop Corrigan/Romana Maggiora: Vittoria/Federico Ielapi: Paolo / Virginia Bocelli: Aria /Patrick Patch Darragh: Dr Murphy /Liam Campora: Enzo /Jeremy Bobb: Calloway / Rolando Villazón: Enrico Di Salvo / Giancarlo Giannini: Pope Leone XIII / John Lithgow: Mayor Gould.
