A thriller about electing a pope draws crowds at the Rome Film Festival near the Vatican
![](https://ktvz.b-cdn.net/2023/03/osKcX94i-News-BG-NC21-logo-1200x675-1.jpg)
Associated Press
ROME (AP) — With Pope Francis a few weeks away from his 88th birthday, the plotting for his successor is well underway at the Vatican. How timely then, that just across town in Rome, “Conclave,” a thriller filled with back-stabbing, manipulative cardinals quick to toss morality out the window, is a top draw at the Rome Film Festival. Austrian-Swiss Director Edward Berger adapted the film from the 2016 novel “Conclave” written by Robert Harris. Berger puts an extraordinary Ralph Fiennes in the role of Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, dean of the College of Cardinals responsible for organizing the conclave upon the death of the pope.