Saving Grace (1985 film)

Saving Grace is a 1986 film produced by Herbert F. Solow, directed by Robert M. Young and starring Tom Conti, Giancarlo Giannini and Edward James Olmos. It is based on a novel by Celia Gittelson with screenplay by Richard Kramer and David S. Ward under a different name.

A year after his election, a youthful Pope Conti longs to be involved in ordinary peoples lives again, as he was when he was a priest.During an audience, the Pope communicates with a deaf mute young girl whose village has no priest. Accidentally locked out of the Vatican, the Pope travels to the small impoverished and demoralized village, his identity concealed by his beard growth. He realizes that the people need to rebuild a dilapidated aqueduct but, more importantly, that they must regain their community spirit and selfsufficiency. Without expertise and, initially, only the help of some streetwise orphans, he starts construction. All this is watched skeptically by a mysterious neighbour played by Giannini and opposed by local thugs led by Ciolino Olmos whose illgotten gains depend on the village remaining overly dependent on outsiders. ........

Source: Wikipedia