Jolie plays slain reporter's wife in harrowing film

By Mike Collett-White

CANNES, France (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 was showcased outside the main competition.

The movie unites Jolie with her off-screen partner and onetime co-star Brad Pitt, who is a producer, and is directed by Britain's Michael Winterbottom, who's previous credits include "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 at the time his wife was about 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 kidnapping.

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.