The affair shook the walls of the Vatican Palace.
It was triggered by the discovery, in London, in 1982, of the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi, hanged under Blackfriars Bridge.
The man, nicknamed "The Banker of God" had close ties with the Holy See, but also with the Mafia, Freemasonry, other supposed sectarian movements and the secret services.
This is the story of this fascinating investigative thriller, the four episodes of which bring to light the most compromising aspects of racketeering.
To discover
“Koh-Lanta, the sacred fire”: date, candidates, news… Everything you need to know
Mafia, Freemasonry and Red Brigades
The story begins on June 5, 1982. Roberto Calvi, banker, powerful and influential man, writes a letter to Pope John Paul II in which he begs the sovereign pontiff to come to his aid in a matter which, if it were to be sue, could lead to the fall of the establishment he heads, but also that of the Vatican Bank, its main shareholder, splashing the passage of a number of very high-ranking personalities.
The businessman is suspected of being at the origin of the abysmal debt of his establishment: 1.3 billion dollars have been embezzled, part of which belongs to the mafia.
On June 11, Calvi disappears.
On June 18, he was found in the heart of London, hanged under Blackfriars Bridge.
Did he commit suicide?
Was he murdered?
Why were pieces of bricks found in his pockets?
Why in England rather than in Italy?
And where is the money?
So many questions to which the investigation carried out by several police services has not yet definitively answered.
And leads as nebulous as a banned Italian Freemasonry lodge, the mafia, the Red Brigades, a Polish trade union, a Nicaraguan armed group...
Storytelling mastered
If the death of Calvi is a tragedy, it also offers to all those who work on his explanation the opportunity of an investigation whose stakes prove to be colossal.
And to all fans of great crime stories the opportunity for a great relationship.
Like this documentary in four episodes, never putassier, scrupulously factual, which retraces the affair in its smallest details.
Testimonials, reconstitutions in the style of a drawn thriller from the 1950s and archival documents follow one another.
Storytelling is mastered.
The cutting is fascinating.
A story by Tom Donahue, American director and producer to whom we owe many documentaries including
This Changes Everything
, on systemic gender bias and the discrimination suffered by women in Hollywood.
The artist has received numerous awards, most of them awarded for his ability to tell the contemporary world in its strictest and rawest reality.
The Banker of God
, in English
The God's Banker
, is available in its entirety on the Paramount + platform this Monday.
