Papal Politics

Or a film set in the holy heart of the Catholic Church, Edward Berger's Conclave makes for an unusually riveting, fun and entertaining ride, driven primarily by a superbly well-tuned, heavy-duty ensemble packed with star names - Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini - and more so thanks to Peter Straughan's Golden Globe-winning, crisp screenplay, based on a 2016 novel by Robert Harris.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and recently played in the Special Screenings segment of Marrakech International Film Festival. On the death of the Pope, the British Cardinal Dean Thomas Lawrence (Fiennes) is called upon to gather the College of Cardinals to elect his successor. As the audience gets to witness several successive rounds of voting, in the face of the majority eluding any one of the contestants, it also gets introduced to each of the aspirants and the human dreams, aspirations and baser instincts driving their supposedly spiritual pursuits.

Hidden happenings, secrets and lies, sexual scandals and accusations of misconduct slowly come to light as political intrigues and machinations begin to rear their head. While claiming to not be covetous, the group of Cardinals in contention does seek Papacy and wants to ascend the Throne of the Holy See. Not just that they'd go to any lengths for it, including simony, bribing, buying votes and besmirching a rival's reputation.