A thriller about electing a pope proves to be major draw

ROME – With Pope Francis a few weeks away from his 88th birthday, the plotting for his successor is well underway at the Vatican.

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How timely, then, that just across town in Rome, "Conclave," a thriller filled with back-stabbing, manipulative cardinals, quick to toss morality out of the window as they promote their candidate, is a top draw at the Rome Film Festival.

This might be a little too close to home – literally and figuratively – for Pope Francis.

Austrian-Swiss Director Edward Berger, who directed "All Quiet on the Western Front" (2022), adapted the film from the 2016 novel "Conclave" 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.

The conclave is the centuries-old tradition in which, on the death of a pope, cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican to participate in rounds of voting until they elect a new pontiff. Conclave comes from the Latin "cum clave," meaning "with a key," to indicate the Cardinals are locked in until they have chosen the new leader for the world's 1.3 billion Catholics.