Behind the scenes of "Papamobile," a comedy starring Kad Merad "scuttled" by its own distributors

Clothes don't make the pope, but on paper, the film had everything it took to be a success. Kad Merad, a popular actor , plays the role of the pontiff. Sylvain Estibal, a filmmaker who won the César Award for Best First Film in 2012 for The Pig of Gaza , directed it. Filmed in Mexico and with a crazy plot: after kidnapping the pope during a visit, a cartel realizes he's a lookalike, sent by the head of the Catholic Church. It will be difficult to see Popemobile on the big screen, despite a national release on Wednesday, August 13.

Only seven theaters scattered throughout France showed it on the day of its release. All are located in cities with fewer than 35,000 inhabitants, with the exception of Avignon (Gard). Of the thirty or so theaters scheduled to show it in the following weeks, according to Allociné , none are in Paris or Marseille. In short, Papamobile only benefited from a "technical release," a strategy aimed at limiting losses when distributors don't believe in the success of a film. A rare occurrence for a French comedy with such a popular actor in the cast.

"I admit, it's a failure, it's an unfunny comedy, according to most of those who saw it. It happens in the business," lamented the film's producer, Jean Bréhat, in the columns of the Canard enchaîné on Wednesday. " It's a shame that a producer who is supposed to defend his projects should express himself like this in the press on the day of its release," responded the director, Sylvain Estibal, on the social network X. "Others who saw the film found it unusual, crazy and amusing, and don't understand why its release was sabotaged like this."

Papamobile was born from an ambitious idea for a French production. "When Pope Francis went to visit Mexico in 2016, Sylvain Estibal and I wondered what would have happened if the pontiff had been kidnapped by a cartel," explains Myriam Tekaïa, co-writer and lead actress of the film, who plays the head of the criminal organization. "Producer Jean Bréhat, a fan of the film The Pig of Gaza , heard about the script and expressed interest in launching the production," she continues .

Filming began years later, in August 2023, after Kad Merad agreed to play the characters of the real and false popes. "It was a role against type, he took a risk and he was excellent," enthuses Myriam Tekaïa.

Contrary to what has been alleged on social media, the film only benefited from a modest budget of 1.2 million euros, Sylvain Estibal complained on X. "There is no public money in this film, apart from a small grant from the CNC [National Centre for Cinema] for the development of script support," he added. A grant of 30 000 euros, according to the institution's website. " The lack of resources is fully assumed in the production, with a declared 'nanar' side," the director continued.

The feature film was therefore shot in a very limited time. Many scenes had to be deleted from the script, and the crews only had 24 days in Mexico to film everything.

"Kad was having fun on set, especially during the scene of the Pope's abduction in his vehicle, because he had never shot a film so quickly. He told me: 'Either it's cult, or it's a disaster.'"

Myriam Takaïa, lead actress and co-writer of "Papamobile"

to franceinfo

It took some inventiveness: the Vatican was recreated from the former Mexican presidential palace, made available free of charge by the local authorities. "The film has a crazy universe and it shows that you can make an ambitious film, which opens the imagination, with limited means, without being a Hollywood production," says Myriam Tekaïa. The main actors, director, and several technicians even decided to give up all or part of their salaries to make the comedy possible, according to Sylvain Estibal.

But the project became even more complicated once the first version of the film was submitted. "It was originally 1 hour 15 minutes long, and the contract that bound us to Amazon [one of the private financiers] stipulated a minimum duration of 1 hour 30 minutes. Sylvain [Estibal] therefore had to rummage through drawers of filming footage to achieve this duration," explains Myriam Tekaïa. " However, this disrupted the rhythm of the film, which is essential in a comedy."

What followed was some tense back-and-forth between The Jokers Films, the film's distributor responsible for placing it in theaters, and the director. In early 2025, the distributors and producer even decided to abandon the project. "It was a heated debate, and [Sylvain Estibal] fought to find another partner himself," continues Myriam Tekaïa. But no buyer bet on Popemobile when it was presented at the Cannes Film Market in May 2025.

Jokers Films has decided to promote the film, for which it had purchased the script in 2023. "Distribution is a business like many others, where sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. You bet on projects, sometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessful," explains Manuel Chiche, president of the company. "In the case of Popemobile , we were very disappointed by the end result, but we honored our commitment to distribute it."

"[We did it] minimally. In any case, the exhibitors didn't want it, except perhaps those who lacked popular films."

Manuel Chiche, President of The Jokers Films

to franceinfo

Papamobile only got a trailer of about thirty seconds. "It's really sabotage, they even included a failed shot," Sylvain Estibal told franceinfo, assuring that "many distributors release films they don't like."

In any case, spectators are scarce. For the film's first showing on Wednesday, the CinéCubic cinema in Saverne (Bas-Rhin) sold no tickets. "It's not the right time for this kind of somewhat daring film, because the loyal, mostly older audience is either on vacation or at home because of the heat," says Felicia Keskin, who works in the establishment's management.

"There's this botched trailer, this media hype: it's a waste," laments Myriam Tekaïa. For comparison, the film will have a real theatrical release in Germany and Belgium."

The Papamobile teams hope that it will also be given a second life in France, when it will be broadcast on the OCS channel in a few months, then on the Amazon streaming platform in 2026. "This film (...) is an absurd journey through our times and addresses sensitive themes such as religion, drug trafficking and migration with humor and kindness. I invite those who are curious to form their own opinion," insists Sylvain Estibal, in his post on X.

"This isn't a sales pitch on my part, since it will be very difficult to see in theaters anyway," insists the director, who has been promoting his project for almost ten years. It's difficult to get an accurate idea of the public's opinion of the film: the day after its release, the opinion aggregation sites Allociné, Sens critique , and Letterboxd had only 14 user ratings between them. But the low number of stars, like the critics, mostly pointed to a "clear lack of resources."