Angel Studios’s newest film, Cabrini, never had a “political drive,” according to producer Leo Severino.
Cabrini released internationally on March 8 amid the polarizing 2024 campaign talking point of immigration. The film depicts the life of Francesca Cabrini, an Italian immigrant whose compassionate heart fights to bring hope and assistance to fellow marginalized people living in New York’s slums during the late 1800s.
“Cabrini’s message is far beyond any one issue. Her biggest message is that line in the film where she says, ‘We can serve our weakness or we can serve our purpose. We can’t serve both,’” Severino told the Washington Examiner. “So much of our defects and our weaknesses and that internal voice that says you can’t do something or that you’re not good enough … that little voice, that’s our weakness.”
“But if we have a purpose that’s greater than that, we can’t let that voice be the boss,” he continued. “We have to have this other voice that says, ‘You know you’re called to this particular duty, this particular sacrifice, or this particular strife for something great.’ That’s really the inspiration behind wanting to make this film.”
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Severino pointed to a scene in the film where Cabrini indicates it is her vision to create an “empire of hope” as she built orphanages and hospitals for those who were marginalized within a community, including immigrants and the disabled.
“As filmmakers, you always want to unite, right? The film shined a light on this woman’s life because she shined a light on the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people, and she was a strong message of perseverance, of hope, of dignity,” Severino said. “Mother Cabrini infects hope in people and inspires them when they’re at a very low point.”
In addition to producing Cabrini, Severino also helped to produce Sound of Freedom, last summer’s Angel Studios box office hit. In both projects, Severino worked alongside executive producer Eduardo Verastegui and director Alejandro Menteverde.
“I’m so grateful for Angel Studios,” Severino said. “I mean, they, you know, both with Cabrini and with Sound of Freedom before, these are two films that we’d finished, and we didn’t know if there would be distribution whatsoever.”
Angel Studios uses a model that allows potential audience members, called the Angel Guild, the opportunity to provide feedback in the making of the projects. Severino said Hollywood passed on distributing Sound of Freedom and likely would have passed on the distribution of Cabrini, but the Angel Guild made Cabrini “the highest-rated film that they had in their ecosystem.”
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Cabrini also features legendary musician Andrea Bocelli and his daughter Virginia Bocelli, who together released the duet “Dare To Be” that plays during the end credits of the film.
The film is rated PG-13 and has earned a 98% Rotten Tomatoes audience score. Since its theatrical release, the film has earned nearly $15 million worldwide, according to box office data.
