Los Dos Papas -
Hopkins’ final performance as a retired pope—living in a cloistered garden, feeding chickens, and smiling without the weight of the world—is heartbreaking. He has found peace by relinquishing power. Pryce’s final shot, walking through the Vatican halls alone, realizing he is now the one who must doubt, is equally powerful. Los Dos Papas is a rare film: a religious movie for atheists, a historical drama that invents its history, and a comedy about the end of the world. It argues that faith is not the absence of doubt, but the courage to live within it. It suggests that the future of the Church—perhaps of any institution—depends not on warriors who never change their minds, but on leaders willing to admit they might be wrong.
Benedict represents the pre-modern Church—beautiful, silent, certain. Francis represents the postmodern Church—messy, dialogical, uncertain. When Benedict argues that the Church must resist the "dictatorship of relativism," Francis counters that the Church must stop dictating and start listening. The film does not declare a winner. Instead, it suggests that both are necessary: the structure of Ratzinger preserves the space for the compassion of Bergoglio. What makes the film so watchable, however, is its joy. After the heavy theology, there is a sequence where the two popes abandon their protocol to watch Germany beat Argentina in the 2010 World Cup. They eat pizza on the floor. They argue about offside rules. They forget, for a moment, that they are the vicars of Christ. los dos papas
Bergoglio unburdens himself of his darkest memory—his failure during Argentina’s Dirty War, when he allegedly did not do enough to protect two imprisoned priests. The film handles this controversial chapter with nuance, suggesting that Bergoglio’s entire papacy is an act of penance for that silence. In this scene, Los Dos Papas transcends biopic territory. It becomes a meditation on whether the sins of the past can ever be redeemed by the actions of the present. Hopkins’ final performance as a retired pope—living in
The film constructs a fictionalized private meeting in 2012 at Castel Gandolfo, where Bergoglio—having already attempted to resign as archbishop—is summoned by Benedict to discuss his departure. This meeting never happened in real life, but Meirelles and screenwriter Anthony McCarten use this dramatic license to stage a series of philosophical duels. The film’s most audacious scene occurs in the Sistine Chapel, beneath the gaze of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment . Here, Bergoglio confesses his sins to the Pope. It is a stunning inversion of power: the future pope confessing to the current pope. But the scene is not about absolution; it is about revelation. Los Dos Papas is a rare film: a
This levity is not disrespectful; it is radical. The film argues that the sacred is found in the profane. When Francis later sneaks out of the Vatican to minister to the homeless or when Benedict quietly slips away into retirement, the film celebrates the small, rebellious acts of humanity.
