Pope Joan (2009)

Cast

John Goodman
as Pope Sergius
Iain Glen
as Village Priest
David Wenham
as Gerold
Anatole Taubman
as Anastasius

Get more information about Pope Joan (2009) on IMDb

Genres & Description

Action Drama History Romance

6.7 / 10

German village Igelheim's backward priest hopes his sons to succeed him after education in the bishop's cathedral school, but the elder succumbs to disease and the youngest lacks any intellectual drive. Traveling teacher Aesculapius arranges for the inquisitive daughter Johanna to be enrolled too, against their father's wishes. Unfit for the boys-only dorm, she gets to stay with count Gerold, incurring his wife's due jealousy. She's to be dismissed, but survives a Viking pillaging slaughter and assumes brother Johannes's identity to join a monastery, where she becomes the infirmary's trainee. Fleeing exposure as female, she arrives in Rome. As a protégée of rivals in the viper nest-like papal court, she ends up elected as pope, but carries count Gerold's baby, guaranteeing exposure.

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Comments on this trailer
Comments may include spoiler!

Biker Boiy

When Pope Joan gave birth it surprises me that any one of the common people would have even thought to touch the Pope people then knew their place and stayed in it. - @Monday, October 15, 2018 3:55 PM

fiqipraramadhan

A really nice film with an interesting story. - @Tuesday, February 20, 2018 1:36 PM

Alice Woods

I never heard before of this legend ! .. I watched a documentary and that's how I learned about this pope. Is amazing the story of the achievement made by a woman in the 13th century. She paid a high price just because she wanted to learn and study more. What a fascinating and tragic story - @Monday, April 24, 2017 12:15 AM

Satanicoaldo Aldo

Well she can't have both. She could be Pope or fall in love with hunly guys. Now being BOTH is asking too much. - @Friday, April 21, 2017 1:15 AM

Wide Open

Problem with being a woman you cant fornicate and get away easy with it, others did. - @Saturday, March 11, 2017 2:41 PM

anti violence

i dont know if its myrh or truth anways she was most clever person from all including and gerold from all book the characters what. more impresed me are character of joana and gerold they was the most clever and most openminded in all history - @Thursday, September 22, 2016 10:24 PM

aquaviva923

the roman catholic institutional invented non biblical church thou full of lies would hate this movie to be seen by the masses - @Friday, September 2, 2016 1:29 AM

A high Elf

Faramir bangin dat pope - @Thursday, November 26, 2015 1:16 AM

Jesus is Salvation

I can picture Jesus and Paul watching this in heaven and Paul being like "smh, if only she had listened to me she would have had a long amazing life with her husband", and Jesus being like "yeah I totally saw that coming, why do you think I said what I did about fornication?" - @Tuesday, September 8, 2015 11:07 PM

melvin boyce

great movie, great story, great inspiration. That is what counts whether it is true or not, the inspiration. Many saying it could not happen because no history of it is written down. I believe history is changed daily buy the written word. I predict that in a few generations once great people of a hundred years ago will either be forgotten or completely vilified so the good they did in their life time will be forgotten and if they are remembered it will be only as bad. This is already happening with such greats as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. - @Wednesday, August 19, 2015 9:45 PM

Nazmud Doha

This movie was inspiring and moving, loved it - @Tuesday, April 28, 2015 3:48 PM

chrisa rose

Faramir what are you doing here? - @Friday, April 10, 2015 9:40 PM

Eloísa García

This is a great movie, I love it! - @Monday, January 5, 2015 5:12 AM

Eduard Miranda

though it's a HISTORICAL FICTION...though i am a devout Catholic...I LOVE IT :D - @Saturday, January 4, 2014 5:15 PM

canadavatar

Obama is from african origin! - @Thursday, October 24, 2013 3:17 AM

Mark Proteau

Fiction but a good story - @Saturday, August 17, 2013 7:41 PM

yaanublabla

maybe a thousand years from now they'll make a movie about the arab who became president of the united states. - @Tuesday, August 6, 2013 10:59 PM

LCOfilms

Based off of Joan of Arc? - @Monday, July 8, 2013 8:51 PM

Ayu Biruu

I BELIEVE IN POPE! JOAN I DO!!!!! - @Saturday, May 11, 2013 3:23 PM

He2riKeZ

I'm surprised with those statistics, 1,5% of the priests is an enormous amount, do you have a source? - @Tuesday, April 30, 2013 6:14 PM

FPool

Faramir! - @Sunday, April 7, 2013 6:57 PM

Truster

Name one good thing the Roman Catholic Church has done. - @Monday, April 1, 2013 9:45 PM

SoundsGood

I still have no idea. about that.. but well actually i don't give a fuck what was there.. Happy Easter! :D - @Monday, April 1, 2013 6:55 PM

Ze Ron

yea i asked this too but why did they? - @Monday, April 1, 2013 2:09 PM

Niemstress

I find more truth in legend and myth then in most things. At this point it's not about whether she existed. It's the message this story sends. And the implications of a story like this causing controversy even today. It's maintained that she didn't exist. I'm not saying she did, I'm saying IF she did, we'd never know. I mean, do you really think they would let any solid proof exist? If there's one thing the church is good at, it's sweeping things under the rug and tying up loose ends. - @Friday, March 8, 2013 3:20 PM

archmich

The chair is an ancient toilet not an instrument to check for a guy's...manhood. Please research before making such claims based on a work of fiction. And people are being annoying about the sex abuse scandals. You guys just love to point out the bad things the catholic church has done. The good always go ignored - @Wednesday, February 13, 2013 6:39 AM

spencer31ful

yes, i agree with you. if there was no female pope, what's that chair for? perhaps it was easy to erase records that time that pope joan became an urban legend. - @Monday, January 7, 2013 6:53 AM

SoundsGood

Why at first they pour ink at her hair? Is that humiliating or consecration? - @Saturday, November 10, 2012 7:45 PM

Les Kin

I do believe this story to hold some truth.... when a new pope is elected but before he is announced his has to dress in a gown and sit on a chair with a hole in the seat and a young cardinal has to confirm that he does indeed have testicles, this rule was not put into place until the late 800s, and it was because of this woman that it was, ... there are many painting and a statue of her too - @Wednesday, October 17, 2012 12:39 AM

Johnny Epistler

So you're saying the sex abuse scandal has no bearing in truth or fact? - @Monday, October 1, 2012 4:13 AM

Johnny Epistler

What, you're saying that it's better to ignore it? The whole Catholic clergy is a perversion for hiding it so long. You're just angry that normal people won't let it happen anymore. - @Sunday, September 30, 2012 3:21 PM

Johnny Epistler

Is that why so many of them touch little boys? - @Saturday, September 29, 2012 2:16 AM

0096luke

Does that include the Crusades, the burning of heretics and the demanding of taxes in exchange for a place in Heaven? - @Thursday, September 20, 2012 4:43 AM

Michal Ashtar

Please read the book first! it is an amazing book! :) - @Tuesday, August 7, 2012 2:57 PM

Karina Santos

This movie looks really good. I want to watch it - @Friday, July 13, 2012 4:41 AM

Atikini Bilivalu

life challenging - @Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:41 PM

ngmeylan

I'm glad it didn't ended with the fact the people killed her - @Thursday, May 3, 2012 4:06 PM

bush bush

enlighten your self... - @Saturday, April 28, 2012 5:40 PM

chivita7

gunna watch it tonight on REELZ channel - @Saturday, March 3, 2012 6:43 PM

Alex Saunders

@dane5256 Just with 'ninikokoko'; I'm not going to debate this with you. However, the nature of history makes it impossible for a categorised fact, on something that can not be proved. Hypothetically, such a pope as Joan could have been removed and replaced in the archives, by the Vatican, with ease. As it happens I don't believe Pope Joan existed in the slightest, however I don't believe it can ever be proved categorically, beyond historical documentation; who's accuracy can never be 100%. - @Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:28 PM

Nini Mtchedlishvili

@dane5256 well I'm not gonna debate with you... I don't remember the name of the book, which tells the true story of the lewdness of Catholic Church, in those centuries, and actually I'm not lying... I'll find that book and write you in PM ... you should read... and of course not only that book is the evidence of this fact, the history tells us about it... - @Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:06 PM

Alex Saunders

@dane5256 YOU can not KNOW that there was never a Pope Joan; whilst her existence is very unlikely, it it by no means known for certain, and it never will be. Since it is a film not a documentary, historical inaccuracy is irrelevant. - @Tuesday, February 28, 2012 10:16 PM

Timothy Valles

0:45 Jodl.... - @Sunday, February 26, 2012 12:41 AM

Nini Mtchedlishvili

actually people you should read more literature about religion, and you'll get that it's not a legend. It was a real person, real woman who became pope. she was very debauched and the fact that she was a woman,was discovered when she gave birth to child.The Vatican did everything to hide this shame, they destroyed each evidence of her existence and after then,each pope before the sanctify,is checked up,to be sure that he is a man.by the way I'm an orthodox, don't think that i abuse the religion. - @Thursday, February 23, 2012 2:23 AM

LaurenAKAHippie

I saw this online yesterday... it was SOOOOO GOOD!!!! XD - @Tuesday, December 27, 2011 2:37 AM

Kadamim

@chloebella17 what channel? - @Monday, December 26, 2011 2:06 PM

Nicodermus4Life

@PorkFrog Well the pope is merely an infallible priest so the question should be rephrased to mean priest instead of pope. Now, a women cannot and never can be a priest simply because Jesus ordained men to represent him In Persona Christi during Mass. It is inappropriate to have a woman be Christ (who was a man) just as it is for a man to be The Virgin Mary! - @Wednesday, December 21, 2011 7:01 AM

Joe Johnson

@TheRougeHawksClan so it takes nuts to be pope? WHY? any explanation would be appreciated - @Tuesday, December 20, 2011 11:19 PM

Nicodermus4Life

@bonhomie888 Those legends of "popes who had married" aren't legends, they are historical fact awknowledged by the Church because we all know that priestly celibacy came later on in the Latin Rite. Everyone who knows anything about this, knows that! It's not some dark secret we supress, it's common knowledge, thought of as our dark past by common misconception - @Friday, December 16, 2011 5:13 AM

Nicodermus4Life

Even if she did exist, she wasn't validly pope. They would have went through the motions with her, ordination, installation, and all the sacraments of Holy Orders, but they would've had no effect. She would have pranced around dressed as pope during her "reign" but she would have been no more a pope than if I dress up as Mother Teresa! - @Friday, December 16, 2011 5:11 AM