ITALY
AFP
By Ella Ide (AFP)
VENICE, Veneto — British director Stephen Frears said on Saturday Pope Francis should watch “Philomena”, his tragi-comic film which puts the spotlight on one of the Catholic Church’s dark secrets in Ireland.
The film, which has taken the Venice film festival by storm, tells the true tale of a mother’s search for her son in the context of Church-run institutions which stripped young unwed mothers of their children.
“I hope the pope will see it. He seems a rather good bloke the pope, very open,” Frears, director of the award-winning “The Queen”, said in the floating city.
The film, starring Judi Dench as mother Philomena Lee and comic actor Steve Coogan as the ex-BBC journalist who helps her, drew laughs, tears and rounds of spontaneous applause at its screening in Venice.
Based on the story in Martin Sixsmith’s 2009 book “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee”, the film tells the tale of a teenage girl who falls pregnant in Ireland in 1952 and is packed off to a convent.
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