★★★★½
Pif needs only three letters.
When a satirist becomes so familiar within a nation that even his shortened name needs no explanation, he earns unusual freedom. He can approach the sacred without immediately being accused of sacrilege.
In Italy, few institutions are more sacred than the Catholic Church. Food may come close. A disagreement over how to fill a cannolo can acquire the heat of a theological schism. Every region has its traditions, its authorities and its heretics.
Pierfrancesco Diliberto, known as Pif, brings both faiths together in Holy Cannoli (Che Dio perdona a tutti). He directs, co-writes and stars in this Palermo-set romantic comedy, adapted from his own novel. It opens the 2026 ST. ALi Italian Film Festival in its Australian premiere.
Pif plays Arturo, a successful real estate agent whose deepest commitment is to Sicilian desserts. He maintains a social-media account devoted to judging culinary creations and defending traditional recipes. Cassata, cannoli and other pastries must observe the old laws. Innovation is usually evidence of moral decline.
Arturo is a dessert conservative, searching for purity in a world that keeps adding unnecessary ingredients. Pastry gives him pleasures that sex and religion have so far failed to provide. Then he meets Flora.
Giusy Buscemi plays the devout Catholic pastry chef with enough radiance to make Arturo reconsider his priorities. The speed and intensity of her attraction to this awkward, dessert-bellied bachelor require some suspension of disbelief. The film knows this and treats their unlikely chemistry as part of the joke.
Their courtship becomes a Palermo variation on 9½ Weeks. Creams are spread. Cannoli are filled. Food moves from private obsession to erotic language. Mickey Rourke had a refrigerator; Arturo has an entire Sicilian pasticceria.
Buscemi is captivating. She has the composure of a classic Italian screen star, and the camera loves her. It is easy to imagine her moving into Bond films or Hollywood romantic leads.
There is one obstacle. Arturo is not Catholic. Rather than risk losing Flora, he pretends otherwise.
The deception soon develops structural problems. He cannot sustain a convincing conversation about doctrine and does not know that the Eighth Commandment prohibits bearing false witness. Lying about being Catholic while forgetting the commandment against lying is the kind of contradiction Pif enjoys.
Arturo eventually attempts a sincere conversion. He approaches Christianity as he approaches pastry: identify the original recipe, follow every instruction and reject unauthorised substitutions.
Here the film’s comic premise acquires sharper teeth. Religions and recipes both face the tension between preservation and adaptation. Should followers obey the letter of an inherited text, or apply its principles to circumstances its authors could never have imagined?
Arturo chooses the letter. He becomes so committed to Catholic rules that he loses sight of why faith exists. Compassion narrows into judgment. Love becomes conditional. The man who once inspected cannoli for impurities begins examining everyone around him for sin.
This gives Holy Cannoli room to examine extremism without abandoning romantic comedy. A person may believe they are defending truth while becoming cruel in its service. Rules can provide moral direction, but they can also provide shelter from the more difficult work of understanding another person.
Pif directs the sharpest barbs towards performative faith. Some characters know the prayers, attend Mass and participate in religious rituals while continuing to commit adultery, indulge prejudice and speak harshly about refugees. Their Christianity functions as cultural membership rather than a demanding moral practice.
Francesco Scianna supplies considerable machismo as Tommaso, the handsome womaniser who embodies this contradiction. He knows how to look Catholic while arranging his life around appetites that church teaching supposedly forbids. Arturo, meanwhile, becomes doctrinally serious enough to expose what everyone else has quietly agreed to ignore.
That truth can be difficult to bear. Some audience members walked out as the film’s critique of religious hypocrisy intensified. The reaction demonstrates that Pif has found the sensitive tissue beneath the comedy.
The film’s boldest device brings the Pope into Arturo’s living room. After a dessert binge sends his blood sugar soaring, Arturo begins hallucinating conversations with the pontiff. It sounds absurd, and it is. Yet Carlos Hipólito plays the Pope with such warmth that the scenes become unexpectedly tender.
This imagined pontiff clearly carries the spirit of Pope Francis, the Argentinian leader who tried to move Catholic attention from rigid doctrine towards mercy, poverty and human dignity. Hipólito is endearing without reducing him to a benevolent grandfather.
The conversations also clarify the film’s central idea. Faith cannot exist only in churches, prayers or public rituals. It must enter the conscience and influence everyday decisions. That becomes difficult when desire, pride or another cannolo enters the room.
Pif has a gift for comedy that travels. Some jokes depend upon Italian Catholic culture, but many come from physical embarrassment, sexual insecurity, appetite and the distance between the person we claim to be and the one revealed by temptation. Hypocrisy needs no subtitles.
The film occasionally pushes its romantic premise beyond credibility, and its lesson becomes more explicit than necessary. Yet Pif’s affection for his characters keeps the satire from curdling. He is interested in human weakness because it is human, shared and frequently ridiculous.
Holy Cannoli argues that purity can become another form of vanity. Arturo wants the perfect dessert, the perfect faith and the certainty of being correct. Love demands something less orderly. It requires accommodation, honesty and forgiveness.
God may forgive everyone. Families, lovers and outraged dessert critics can take a little longer.
Holy Cannoli screens at the 2026 ST. ALi Italian Film Festival, presented by Palace. In cinemas from today in the locations below.
Tickets: https://italianfilmfestival.com.au/films/iff26-holy-cannoli
Website: https://italianfilmfestival.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/italianfilmfest/
Watch the trailer below:
Film details:
Title: Holy Cannoli (Che Dio perdona a tutti)
Director: Pierfrancesco ‘Pif’ Diliberto
Cast: Pierfrancesco ‘Pif’ Diliberto, Carlos Hipólito, Francesco Scianna, Giusy Buscemi
Country of Origin: Italy
Duration: 117 mins
Rating: M
2026 Festival Dates and Venues by City:
Canberra 16 September – 14 October, Palace Electric Cinema
Adelaide 16 September – 13 October, Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas
Sydney 17 September – 14 October, Palace Moore Park, Palace Norton St, Palace Central
Byron Bay and Ballina 17 September – 14 October, Palace Byron Bay, Ballina Fair Cinemas
Melbourne 18 September – 15 October, The Astor Theatre, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Pentridge Cinema, Cinema Nova
Ballarat 18 September – 15 October, Palace Regent Cinemas
Brisbane 24 September – 18 October, Palace Barracks, Palace James Street
Perth 24 September – 18 October, Palace Raine Square, Luna Leederville, Luna on SX, Windsor Cinema
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