Film Screening: Grace

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In the last months of his term, an Italian president is facing several difficult decisions.

This film by the Oscar-winning Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty, The Young Pope) was featured in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival, where lead Toni Servillo won Best Actor.

Fictional Italian president Mariano De Santis, a Catholic and a lawyer, is in a moral dilemma and delays the signing of a law that will legalize euthanasia and is bound to polarize public opinion. He also has to consider two controversial pardon petitions. De Santis cannot make up his mind and wonders whether a person’s life is really theirs.

The film’s Italian title can mean both “elegance” and “pardon.” The latter clearly refers to the choices faced by the protagonist. Should he pardon the murderers based on mitigating circumstances? Can he remain a Catholic and still sign the law on euthanasia? Unlike many real politicians, De Santis does not aim to be rid of his doubt: he accepts it as part of responsible living and even finds in it a special form of beauty.

The screening will be in Italian with Russian subtitles.