The Shoes of the Fisherman

Set in a futuristic vision of the late 1980′s, Ukrainian Archbishop Kiril Lakota is set free after two decades as a political prisoner in Siberia…

• Director: Michael Anderson
• Genre:Drama
• Runtime:148 minutes

Cast

Anthony Quinn : Kiril Lakota
Laurence Olivier: Piotr Ilyich Kamenev (as Sir Laurence Olivier)
Oskar Werner : Fr. David Telemond
David Janssen : George Faber
Vittorio De Sica: Cardinal Rinaldi

Set approximately twenty years in the future at the height of the Cold War, The Shoes of the Fisherman opens as protagonist Kiril Pavlovich Lakota (Anthony Quinn), the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, is unexpectedly set free after twenty years in a Siberian labor camp by his former jailer, Piotr Ilyich Kamenev (Laurence Olivier), now the premier of the Soviet Union.

He is sent to Rome, where the elderly fictional Pope Pius XIII (John Gielgud) raises him to the cardinalate in the title of St. Athanasius. Lakota intially declines, but reluctantly accepts the promotion.

When the Pontiff suddenly collapses and dies, the process of a papal conclave begins, and Cardinal Lakota participates as one of the electors. During the sede vacante, two cardinals in particular, Cardinal Leone (Leo McKern) and Cardinal Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica) are shown to be papabile. After seven ballots of deadlock, Lakota finds himself elected Pope as a compromise candidate (suggested by Cardinal Rinaldi) by acclamation after the Cardinals, unable to decide between the leading candidates, interview him and are impressed by his ideas and his humility. Lakota takes the name of Pope Kiril (using his baptismal name). Meanwhile, the world is on the brink of nuclear war due to a Chinese-Soviet feud made worse by a famine caused by trade restrictions brought against China by the United States.

The evening after his election, Pope Kiril, with the help of his personal aide Gelasio (Arnoldo Foà), sneaks out of the Vatican and explores the city of Rome without being recognized. Later, the Pope returns to the Soviet Union to meet privately with Kamenev and Chairman Peng (Burt Kwouk) of China to discuss the ongoing crisis. Read more