“Watch the amazing TRUE story of Jean-Marie Lustiger, a Polish Jew who converted to Catholicism and rose high enough through the ranks of the Church to witness the inner workings of Pope John Paul II’s Vatican!”
Pope John Paul II and Jean-Marie Lustiger bond over a shared childhood love of pierogis, but are torn over Poland’s attitude toward Auschwitz, and the way it remembers the Holocaust. With playful cinematography that emphasizes light and dark, color and gleam, and occasionally lingers on the panel of a comic book, smoke from a cigarette, or graffiti on a Roman side street, The Jewish Cardinal uses the luscious pleasures of the everyday to underscore and endure the big questions of identity, humanity, and home. – Diana Clarke, Village Voice
Gripping. – Mark Sommer, The Buffalo News
The Jewish Cardinal tells the amazing true story of Jean-Marie Lustiger, son of Polish-Jewish immigrants to France, who maintained his cultural identity as a Jew even after converting to Catholicism at a young age, and later joining the priesthood. Quickly rising within the ranks of the Church, Lustiger was appointed Archbishop of Paris in 1981 by Pope John Paul II, and found a new platform to celebrate his dual identity as a Catholic Jew, earning him friends and enemies from both groups. A fascinating drama full of intelligence and gentle humor. A Film Movement release.
