The Conclave
Winter 2007 Special Presentations series
Friday, March 2, 2007 at 8:00pm
Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 7:00pm
Acadia Cinema's Al Whittle Theatre
450 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Directed by Christopher Schrewe
Starring Manu Fullola, Brian Blessed, James Faulkner, Peter Guinness, Matthias Koeberlin, Nora Tschirner
Rated NR ·
1h 40m
Canada
English
The Conclave is a gripping courtroom-style drama that takes place in Rome in 1458, five years after the emotionally charged fall of Constantinople to Islam.
After the death of both his uncle, Pope Calixtus III and his brother Pedro Borgia–Captain General of the Church army–twenty-seven-year-old Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (Manu Fullola, El Comisario) finds himself locked cum clave (under key) with eighteen powerful men (British stage stalwarts Brian Blessed, James Faulkner and Peter Guinness) fighting for the title of “Ruler of the World”. With Roman mobs rampaging through the city killing every Spaniard they can lay their hands on, Rodrigo has only one weapon to defend himself: his vote to elect the new pope, and with that he must secure both his life and his future.
But while Rodrigo is locked behind closed doors in the Vatican palace, his lifelong rival, Giuliano della Rovere—later to become Pope Julius II (German television star Matthias Koeberlin)—competes for the love of his concubine, the beautiful Vannozza de Catanei (twenty-year-old newcomer Nora Tschirner).
Based on a secret diary kept by Pope Pius II, The Conclave illustrates how much times have changed since the Italian Renaissance—and also how much they have stayed the same.