FASHION & FRAGILITY

Angelina Jolie talks about her deeply personal new film, set during Paris Fashion Week

- GILL PRINGLE

With the title Couture and a plot that unravels during Paris Fashion Week, one might be forgiven for assuming that Angelina Jolie's latest film would be a frothy fashion spectacle.

In fact, the plot is inspired by the actress and philanthropist's personal life.

Angelina has spent more than 20 years working with refugees, speaking up for women's rights and highlighting injustice wherever she sees it.

When she chose to undergo a preventive double mastectomy in 2013, after learning that she carried the BRCA1 gene, which increased her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, she bravely spoke about her ordeal to help other women.

She shares her experience again in Couture, portraying an American film director who visits Paris to shoot a film and fashion show but learns on her trip that she has breast cancer.

"I did choose to have that [surgery] because I lost my mother and my grandmother very young," she reflects when we meet at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where Couture enjoyed its European premiere and competed in the prestigious Official Selection.

"I have the BRCA gene, so I chose to have a double mastectomy a decade ago," Angelina says. "I've also had my ovaries removed, because that's what took my mother. Those are my choices. I don't say everybody should do it that way, but it's important to have the choice. And I don't regret it."