CABRINI

Director: Alejandro Monteverde

2024, 145min., PG-13

Cast: John Lithgow, David Morse, Giancarlo Giannini

 

Many visitors to Upper Manhattan’s Cloisters pass by the shrine (and mummified body) of Mother Cabrini knowing little about the activist immigrant who became America’s first canonized saint. From Alejandro Monteverde (Sound of Freedom) comes the powerful story of Francesca Cabrini, an Italian immigrant who arrived in New York City in 1889. Shocked by poverty, disease, crime and suffering of the immigrants she meets in Hell’s Kitchen, the fierce-willed nun sets off on a solo mission to convince the mayor and upper classes to look past their prejudices to help end the suffering of the unseen under class. With little English and poor health, Cabrini helped to bring housing, food, healthcare and orphanages to the city’s most vulnerable.  As a woman up against powerful men In New York and Rome, Italian actress Cristiana Della’Anna (HBO’s Gomorrah.) gives a remarkable performance of both fragility and uncommon strength.