IRELAND
Imperial Valley Press
Associated Press
Director Stephen Frears really wants Pope Francis to see his latest film, `’Philomena,” the true story of a shamed Irish woman forced by nuns to give her son up for adoption in the 1950s. He wants it so much, he said so three times during a news conference on Saturday.
`’I am very, very keen that the pope should see it, if you have any influence in those quarters,” Frears told reporters ahead of the film’s world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
Asked to explain, he said: `’He seems like a rather good bloke, the pope.”
`’Philomena” stars Judi Dench in the title role as a woman who sought to locate her son, and Steve Coogan, as Martin Sixsmith, the journalist who accompanied her on her journey and wrote a 2009 book, which itself has been a catalyst for thousands of `’shamed” Irish mothers who similarly lost their children to come forward.
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