''Cardinal Messias'' (Italian: ''Abuna Messias'') is a 1939 Italian historical

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 by Goffredo Alessandrini and starring Camillo Pilotto,

Enrico Glori Enrico is both an Italian masculine given name and a surname, Enrico means homeowner, or king, derived from ''Heinrich'' of Germanic origin. It is also a given name in Ladino. Equivalents in other languages are Henry ( English), Henri (French), E ...

and

Mario Ferrari Mario Ferrari (September 3, 1894 – June 28, 1974) was an Italian film actor. After making his debut in 1920, Ferrari became a mainstay of Italian cinema during the Fascist era appearing in a mixture of leading and supporting roles. He pla ...

.Moliterno p.313 The film was awarded the

Mussolini Cup The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

at the 1939 Venice film festival. It portrays the life of

Guglielmo Massaia Guglielmo Massaia (9 June 1809 - 6 August 1889), born Lorenzo Massaia, was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who was also a missionary and Capuchin friar. His baptismal name was Lorenzo; he took Guglielmo as religious name. His ...

, a nineteenth-century Italian known for his missionary work in the Ethiopian Empire.

Cast

* Camillo Pilotto as il cardinale Guglielmo Massaia, detto Abuna Messias *

as il re Menelik *

as Abuna Atanasio * Amedeo Trilli as Ghebrà Selassié, il consigliere di Alem *Berché Zaitù Taclè as la principessa Alem *Ippolito Silvestri as il re Johannes * Francesco Sala as il marchese Antinori *Roberto Pasetti as padre Leone *Abd-el-Uad as il capo indigeno Abu Beker * Oscar Andriani as padre Reginaldo Giuliani * Corrado Racca as Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour

References

Bibliography

* Moliterno, Gino. ''The A to Z of Italian Cinema''. Scarecrow Press, 2009.

External links

* 1939 films Italian historical drama films 1930s historical drama films 1930s Italian-language films Films directed by Goffredo Alessandrini Films set in the 19th century Films set in Ethiopia Italian black-and-white films 1939 drama films 1930s Italian films {{1930s-Italy-film-stub