Polish filmmaker: John Paul II was grateful media did not sensationalize his illness

Barcelona, Spain, Aug 3, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, who filmed a movie on John Paul II entitled, “From a Far Away Country,” said this week the late pontiff, “was thankful for the way in which the press handled his illness, without turning it into a spectacle.” 

During a film festival on the family in Barcelona, Zanussi, who was a personal friend of John Paul II, told reporters that the late Pope said, “he recognized everything in the movie except himself.  He was not used to looking at himself.”   “I would have liked to have filmed the movie after his death in order to have more perspective,” the director stated.

Zanussi also pointed out that while, “the relationship between religion and the media has always been difficult,” John Paul II “never had any problems,” due in part, he said, to “his theatrical experience.”  

Asked about his views of Benedict XVI, Zanussi said he was confident in the Pope’s abilities because, “he is a man of great intellectual potential, enough to be Pope, although he may not be the celebrity that John Paul II was.”

Krzysztof Zanussi was born in Warsaw in 1939 and studied Physics and Filmmaking.  He began directing as an amateur in the 1950s.  Between 1974 and 1981 he was vice president of the Polish Association of Filmmakers.