Pallade Veneta - Cillian Murphy tackles Irish 'shame' with Berlin fest opener

"Small Things Like These", based on the bestselling novel by Claire Keegan and co-starring Michelle Fairley ("Game of Thrones") and Emily Watson ("Chernobyl"), is one of 20 pictures vying for the festival's Golden Bear top prize.

After a press preview, Murphy told reporters that recounting the crimes against women committed in institutions run by the Roman Catholic Church was crucial in a society that had still not fully come to grips with the scandal.

"I do think that it was a collective trauma, particularly for people of a certain age, and I think that we're still processing that," said Murphy, who is nominated for an Academy Award next month for his turn in the biopic "Oppenheimer".

Murphy plays a devoted father of five daughters who unearths shocking secrets about the convent in his town linked to one of the Magdalene laundries.

- 'Balm for that wound' -

The actor, who also produced the film with his "Oppenheimer" co-star Matt Damon, said the "irony" of his character was that he was "a Christian man trying to do a Christian act in a dysfunctional Christian society".

"It asks a lot of questions about complicity and silence and shame," he added, saying that he believed the book and the film, which are set in the 1980s, could be "a really useful balm for that wound".

"Maybe it's kind of easier to absorb than an academic report or a government report," said Murphy who reunited for the project with Belgian film-maker Tim Mielants, who directed him in the hit series "Peaky Blinders".

He acknowledged that his coal merchant character, who tries to help a pregnant inmate at the convent, "may be the main character" but insisted "it's a film about women".

Damon said that in a world full of superhero blockbusters, the film, which his frequent collaborator Ben Affleck executive-produced, harkened back to the type of human-scale moviemaking of the 1990s when they became stars with "Good Will Hunting".

"We're asking the audience to care about cinema, and I believe that there's enough of an audience in the world that still does," Damon said. "It's constantly in flux but we believe that it is not dead."

Most of the Magdalene laundries' residents were ostracised "fallen women" who had become pregnant outside marriage. Others included rape victims, orphans, prostitutes and the disabled.

They worked for no pay even though the religious orders ran the laundries as commercial ventures. More than 10,000 women were forced to work at the sites from the 1920s until the 1990s.

Irish authorities released a 1,000-page report on the laundries in 2013 and then-prime minister Enda Kenny apologised to the victims, as did those who ran the laundries.

- Lifetime award for Scorsese -

Berlin's 11-day cinema showcase has the strongest political bent of the big three European festivals and serves as a key launchpad for films from around the world.

It will feature new movies from A-list stars including Kristen Stewart, Adam Sandler, Gael Garcia Bernal, Rooney Mara and Isabelle Huppert.

Martin Scorsese, nominated for a record 10th time for a best director Oscar for "Killers of the Flower Moon", is due in Berlin to collect an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.

Kenyan-Mexican actor Lupita Nyong'o is serving as the first black jury president at the event known as the Berlinale, which is now in its 74th year.

With the plight of Iran's women, the Gaza war and the resurgent far right expected to touch off debate and possibly protests during the event, Nyong'o said she was looking forward to a challenging festival.

"I think what we're here to do is to see how artists are responding to the world we are living in right now," she told reporters. "I'm curious to see what they're making of it."

H.Lagomarsino--PV