'Philomena' impresses, Gilliam goes into black hole in Venice

FUTURE ON A LOW BUDGET

The film, co-written by Coogan who is a household name in Britain for his TV comedy about radio host Alan Partridge, strikes a good balance between drama and humor, Swedish critic Gunnar Rehlin of TT Spektra told Reuters.

"It's a serious film but with a laugh in the midst of all the necrophilia and etcetera," Rehlin said, referring to the grim themes such as taboo sex, domestic violence and incest that have permeated festival offerings this year.

Coogan, in an interview with Reuters Television, said adding a comic touch made the story more moving and palatable.

"That was my sort of dream in my head," he said, adding: "Wouldn't it be amazing if someone like Judi Dench would play this old Irish lady, I could play this journalist?"

Gilliam, who is yet to complete his ambitious project to adapt Cervantes's classic "Don Quixote", said he shot the new film in Bucharest, Romania, because it was cheaper than London.

"We were basically in the real world trying to make a surreal, futuristic movie," Gilliam told a news conference. "So it's that dynamic that is both dynamic, infuriating and surprising but this is the end result."

He said the film in part shows that the promise of the Internet to put everyone in touch with each other and with all knowledge may not be all it is cracked up to be.

The Arab Spring "was possible because of young people being able to communicate as they do with the web", Gilliam said.

"But then I wonder ... wow we see the exact same people that were running Egypt back in control. So I don't know, I worry."

"And I think if I can make a film that gets us talking, discussing, thinking, arguing, then that's a step towards a better solution for whatever problems we are dealing with."