As the Vatican braces for its next chapter, a political thriller about the secrets, ambitions and backroom deals that shape the papal election has exploded in popularity, fuelled by real-life events that feel eerily familiar.
When news broke on the morning of Monday, April 21, 2025, that Pope Francis had passed away at the age of 88, the world didn’t just mourn the death of a pontiff. It marked the end of an era — a decade-long chapter defined by progressive reforms, pastoral humility, and a pope who dared to stir centuries-old waters within the Catholic Church.
But while the College of Cardinals quietly began preparing for the sacred rites of the conclave, something unexpected was happening on screens across the world.
In the 24 hours that followed, viewership of Edward Berger’s thriller Conclave skyrocketed.
Streaming data from analytics firm Luminate showed a jaw-dropping 283% spike in minutes watched, jumping from 1.8 million on Sunday, April 20, 2025, to 6.9 million on Monday, April 21, 2025. The film, which had largely flown under the radar since its quiet release in late 2024, had suddenly become the must-watch movie of the moment. With the Church back in global headlines, audiences were ready for a peek behind the Vatican’s heavy oak doors, even if fictional.
Vatican’s inner theatre
Set entirely inside the Vatican, Conclave is a tightly wound political drama that peels back the rituals to expose the raw human power plays beneath. After the sudden death of a fictional pope, Cardinal Lawrence — played with soul-searching depth by Ralph Fiennes — is assigned to organise the conclave. But the sacred tradition quickly unravels into something far messier. Old debts, secret factions, whispered betrayals – they all take centre stage as the cardinals prepare to cast their votes.
The mood shifts dramatically with the unexpected arrival of a mysterious cardinal from Afghanistan, introduced only as Cardinal Benítez. Appointed in secret by the late pope and largely unknown to the others, his presence sends tremors through the college. Every scene grows heavier with suspicion. Deals are cut. Promises made. Loyalties tested.
And then, in the film’s most arresting moment, the newly elected pope — a man not chosen out of unity but plucked from chaos — drops a bombshell that turns the chamber cold. He is intersex.
The truth, hidden all his life, now sits in the spotlight of the world’s most sacred office. The camera lingers not on the scandal but on the silence that follows — a powerful reckoning between tradition and truth. It’s the kind of cinematic moment that doesn’t just twist the story but rips it open.
A film carved with precision
Edward Berger, no stranger to high-stakes storytelling after his Oscar-winning ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, directs Conclave with the precision of a scalpel. He leans into shadows, stares, and silences. Tension creeps in with every candlelit corridor and Latin prayer. This isn’t a spectacle — it’s a chess match, and Berger plays every move with intention.
Ralph Fiennes delivers a performance that is both internal and volcanic — the quiet ache of a man torn between duty and doubt. Spanish actor Javier Cámara brings unsettling mystery as Cardinal Benítez, while other key roles are filled with an ensemble cast that never lets the energy drop.
Every glance feels like it carries weight. Every pause, a potential betrayal.
When the film first premiered in November 2024, critics praised its intelligence, its unflinching honesty, and its refusal to play it safe. It quickly gained traction during awards season, earning eight nominations at the 97th Academy Awards — including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. It won for Best Adapted Screenplay, with Peter Straughan hailed for turning Robert Harris’s complex novel into something cinematic, biting, and braver than anyone expected.
In the UK, it swept the BAFTAs, winning Best British Film and Best Supporting Actor for Cámara. The Golden Globes weren’t far behind, handing Fiennes his sixth nomination and the win for Best Actor in a Drama. But the biggest legacy of Conclave might not be its accolades — it’s how the film has aged into the moment we’re in now.
Fiction and reality
As the Vatican prepares once again to lower the chimney and begin the rituals that will lead to white smoke rising above St Peter’s Basilica, the themes in Conclave feel less like fiction and more like prophecy.
Pope Francis, often hailed for championing dialogue around gender, climate, and economic justice, had shifted the tone of the Church — but not without resistance. His death has left behind a power vacuum and an ideological clash that is already simmering in Rome.
That’s what makes Conclave suddenly feel urgent.
It’s not just about the process of choosing a new pope — it’s about what happens when centuries-old structures are forced to confront new truths. When identity becomes inseparable from power. When faith becomes a battleground, and not everyone prays on the same side.
Some religious groups have slammed the film as fantasy, an overreach. But audiences are watching anyway — perhaps because it does what the real conclave won’t. It shows us what might be whispered in corners, buried under cassocks, or erased from public view.
In the wake of Pope Francis’s passing, Conclave has become something else entirely — a mirror. Not of the Church as it claims to be, but of the one that might actually exist behind closed doors. And maybe that’s why millions have turned to it in this moment of spiritual transition: because behind the robes and rites, people sense a deeper story unfolding.
And right now, no one is telling it better than Conclave.