對于電影工作者，戛納永遠是一個具有誘惑力的寶地。由安吉麗娜·茱麗主演、皮特擔任制片的《堅強的心》雖然作為參展影片亮相戛納，但受關注程度卻讓競賽單元影片黯然失色。該片改編自《華爾街日報》記者丹尼爾·珀爾遺孀瑪琳娜的傳記《堅強的心：我的丈夫丹尼爾·珀爾的勇敢一生》，珀爾于2002年在一起9·11事件調查中被恐怖分子綁架并慘遭殺害。

U.S. actress Angelina Jolie poses during a photocall for British director Michael Winterbottom's film "A Mighty Heart" at the 60th Cannes Film Festival May 21, 2007. [Reuters]

Angelina Jolie takes on one of her most challenging roles to date in a film about Mariane Pearl, wife of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic militants in 2002.

"A Mighty Heart" premiered in Cannes on Monday, and is one of the most talked about films at the festival this year even though it is outside the main competition.

The movie unites Jolie with her partner Brad Pitt, who is a producer, and is directed by Britain's Michael Winterbottom, who has made films including "The Road to Guantanamo" and "9 Songs."

It is based on Mariane's book "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Daniel Pearl," which recounts the events leading up to and following Daniel's death when she was around six months pregnant.

The film takes the viewer into the teeming streets of Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, where Daniel was abducted, although scenes involving Jolie were shot in India.

It paints a picture of chaos and confusion as Mariane, Pakistani intelligence, U.S. consulate officials and Daniel's newspaper colleagues seek unsuccessfully to track him down via e-mail and mobile phone trails and old-fashioned police work.

They are up against not only a ruthless and professional group of abductors, but also prejudices in Pakistani society that led some to speculate that Daniel worked for U.S. or Israeli intelligence and that India was behind the kidnap.

Jolie said she was nervous about getting the part of Mariane right, and that the film had a message beyond the gripping narrative and gut-wrenching finale.

"For me so much of why this film is important today was because I highly doubt there is anybody in this room who has more reason to hold hate inside herself than Mariane, and she doesn't," Jolie told a news conference.

"She is a very compassionate, thoughtful person who looks to dialogue to change things, to make things better. That is, I think, a lesson to all of us."