“Too bad you’re a woman, you’d have made an excellent man” says New York Mayor Gould to Italian immigrant nun, Francesca Cabrini, after she had politically outmanoeuvred him.

Such is the breathtaking misogyny and chauvinism as well as searing racism Cabrini had to face up to in order to realise her dream of an empire of hope – orphanages and hospitals for the poor, especially the impoverished and ghettoised immigrants.

Alejandro Monteverde’s inspiring feature film, CABRINI, is an underdog tale of truly epic proportion. Wishing to set up an orphanage in China, Cabrini was sent instead by Pope Leo XIII to New York from where an overwhelming number of petitions had arrived from Italian immigrants seeking Papal support.

Arriving in New York with a small group of nuns, she quickly encountered racial slurs of guinea and dago from both the hoi polloi and the upper echelons of authority and power, pimps, police and politicians.

Perfectly timed to open around International Women’s Day, CABRINI is the story of one woman defying impossible odds in a world dominated by men. Cabrini came to America with nothing, when women had no voice, when Italians were considered lowest of the low, and challenged the verity of the proclamation enshrined on the Statue of Liberty –

Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these the homeless tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these the homeless tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

To its credit, CABRINI is not heavy on religious faith but on social justice, about the welfare of the immigrant, the human being who has sought succour in a new land and the welcome the host community should offer.

Led by Cristiana Dell’Anna in a simmering, stoic central performance as the audacious nun, CABRINI boasts a superb supporting cast including Giancarlo Giannini as Pope Leo XIII, David Morse as Archbishop Corrigan, and John Lithgow as Mayor Gould.

Beautifully shot by Gorka Gomez Andreu with an accompanying score by Gene Back that hints at Morricone, CABRINI is a celebration of one woman and her sisters who saw the need for change and challenged the patriarchy to achieve it.  Brava!