''The Bankers of God: The Calvi Affair'' ( it, I banchieri di Dio also known as ''The God's Bankers'') is an Italian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed in 2002 by

Giuseppe Ferrara Giuseppe Ferrara (15 July 1932 – 25 June 2016) was an Italian film director and screenwriter.Banco Ambrosiano Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank that collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi, and his membership in the illegal former Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due (aka P2). The Vatican-based Institute for t ...

, mainly related to the figure of

Roberto Calvi Roberto Calvi (13 April 1920 – 17 June 1982) was an Italian banker, dubbed "God's Banker" () by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. He was a native of Milan and was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in ...

. The

Clearstream scandal The Clearstream affair was a political scandal in France in the run-up to the 2007 French presidential election, 2007 presidential election. The name refers to the Luxembourg bank Clearstream, Clearstream Banking S.A, now wholly owned by Deutsche B ...

exploded as a case full of intricate affairs involving the financial world, the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

, the

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

P2, the Italian Secret Service, the Secret Intelligence Service, the Italian

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

the Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

and the

Banda della Magliana The Banda della Magliana (, ''Magliana Gang'') is an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of some of its members. The ''Banda dell ...

. The movie narrates in detail all these connections, trying to reconstruct events and plots. The film ends with the death of Calvi under the

Blackfriars Bridge Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple Ch ...

, in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, openly supporting the murder-hypothesis.

Cast

Omero Antonutti Omero Antonutti (3 August 1935 – 5 November 2019) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Born in Basiliano, in the province of Udine (in the Northeastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia), after having worked in shipyard ...

Giancarlo Giannini Giancarlo Giannini (born 1 August 1942) is an Italian actor and voice actor. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' Love and Anarchy'' (1973) and received an Academy Award nomination for '' Seven Beauties ...

as Flavio Carboni *

Alessandro Gassman Alessandro Gassmann (born 24 February 1965) is an Italian actor and film director. Early life Gassmann was born in Rome, Italy, the son of Italian actor Vittorio Gassman and French actress Juliette Mayniel. He is of German, Jewish and French ...

Francesco Pazienza Francesco Pazienza (born in 1946, Monteparano) is an Italian businessman, and former officer of the Italian military intelligence agency, SISMI. As of April 2007, he has been paroled to the community of Lerici, after serving many years in prison, ...

Rutger Hauer Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century. Hauer's career began in 1969 with the title role in the Dutch television series ' ...

as Bishop

Paul Marcinkus Paul Casimir Marcinkus (; January 15, 1922 – February 20, 2006) was an American archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church and president of the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, from 1971 to 1989. Early ...

Pamela Villoresi Maria Pamela Villoresi (born 1 January 1957) is an Italian theatre, cinema and television actress. She has performed in more than 100 theatrical productions and in more than 30 films. Life and career The daughter of a cloth merchant of Prat ...

as Clara Calvi *

Vincenzo Peluso This is a list of male actors from Italy, which generally includes those who have resided in Italy or have largely appeared in Italian film productions. This list includes all actors from :Italian male actors. Persons are listed alphabetical ...

as Silvano Vittor *

Pier Paolo Capponi Pier Paolo Capponi (9 June 1938 – 15 February 2018) was an Italian actor and screenwriter. Life and career Born in Subiaco, after his studies Capponi attended a theater school and later was chosen by director Vittorio De Seta for an import ...

as Roberto Rosone *

Franco Diogene Franco Diogene (20 October 1947 – 27 May 2005) was an Italian actor and comedian. Life and career Born Concetto Francesco Diogene in Catania, he was the son of a Sicilian father and a Ligurian mother. At 5 years old, Diogene moved to Genoa ...

as Luigi Mennini *

Camillo Milli Camillo Migliori, best known as Camillo Milli (1 August 1929 – 20 January 2022) was an Italian stage, film and television actor. Life and career Born in Milan, Milli formed under Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, where he deb ...

Licio Gelli Licio Gelli (; April 21, 1919 – December 15, 2015) was an Italian financier. A Fascist volunteer in his youth, he is chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the ...

* Franco Olivero as

Michele Sindona Michele Sindona (; 8 May 1920 – 22 March 1986) was an Italian banker and convicted felon. Known in banking circles as "The Shark", Sindona was a member of Propaganda Due (#0501), a secret lodge of Italian Freemasonry, and had clear connecti ...

Production

The film had a very long and troubled development. According to the director Giuseppe Ferrara, he started the project in 1986, soon after ''

The Moro Affair ''The Moro Affair'' ( it, Il caso Moro) is a 1986 Italian crime film directed by Giuseppe Ferrara about the kidnapping of Aldo Moro in 1978. Plot Italy, 1978. The days of the imprisonment of Aldo Moro, a Christian Democrat statesman kidnapped ...

'', and wanted Gian Maria Volonté in the main role of

. After a final rejection of the project in 1991 by producers

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...

and

Vittorio Cecchi Gori Vittorio Cecchi Gori (; born 27 April 1942) is an Italian film producer and politician. He pleaded guilty to bankruptcy and was sentenced in February 2020 to 8 years and 5 months of imprisonment. Born in Florence, Italy he is the son of Mar ...

, and with Ferrara's intention of throwing in the towel, the interest of Rai Cinema finally made the project possible 15 years later, in 2001. In the same year, it was published also the omonymous Italian book of Mario Almerighi.

References

External links

* Italian drama films 2002 films 2002 drama films Biographical films about gangsters 2000s business films Films about the Sicilian Mafia Films directed by Giuseppe Ferrara Films set in Vatican City Political thriller films Films scored by Pino Donaggio 2000s Italian films {{2000s-Italy-film-stub

Cast

Production

See also

References

External links