Shia LaBeouf stars as priest, Padre Pio struggling with his faith in the drama Padre Pio directed by acclaimed filmmaker Abel Ferrara. Padre Pio was a real-life Italian priest, later venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
As a result of his spiritual experiences during the film’s production, LaBeouf converted to Catholicism and refused to use an Italian accent to portray Pio as the project had become too personal and important to wear a mask.
Also starring in the film are Cristina Chiriac, Marco Leonardi, Asia Argento, Vincenzo Crea, Luca Lionello, Brando Pacitto, Stella Mastrantonio, and Salvatore Ruocc.
Padre Pio world premiered in the Giornate Degli Autori section of the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, and will be released in theaters on June 2, 2023.
It is the end of World War I and the young Italian soldiers are making their way back to San Giovanni Rotondo, a land of poverty, with a tradition of violence and submission to the iron-clad rule of the church and its wealthy landowners. Families are desperate, the men are broken, albeit victorious. Padre Pio also arrives, at a remote Capuchin monastery, to begin his ministry, evoking an aura of charisma, saintliness and epic visions of Jesus, Mary and the Devil himself. The eve of the first free elections in Italy sets the stage for a massacre with a metaphorical dimension: an apocalyptic event that changes the course of history.
Watch the official trailer for Padre Pio.
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