Entertainment

Brenda Blethyn arrived in San Sebastian on Thursday to talk about her latest film London River, showing in this year''s Festival as part of the Zabaltegi Pearls section. Directed by Rachid Bouchareb (Dust of Life), it is the first time Blethyn has played a part not filmed in the English language.

Blethyn plays Mrs Sommers, a Christian war widow living on Guernsey (the British Channel Islands) opposite Sotigui Kouyate''s Ousmane, a Muslim living in France. Overcoming their different backgrounds and religions, the two characters are brought together by their mutual loss: her of her daughter Jane and he of his son Ali, both caught up in the London bombings of 7th July 2005. The film premiered at this year''s Berlin Film Festival, where Kouyate took home the Silver Bear Award for his portrayal.

Speaking before a press conference at the Kursaal on Thursday, Brenda Blethyn (A River Runs Through It, Secrets and Lies) said she was both sceptical and reticent when first approached about the film: "When my agent first said a French director wanted to work with me, I was flattered but when she said it was set around the London bombings I was reluctant."

Eventually, she was won over by Rachid Bouchareb''s vision of the story, which she describes as "about two people coming together and finding their similarities," but was not originally available for filming:

"Rachid and Sotigui said they would wait for me. I didn''t believe them, but they did! After about nine months my agent said Rachid would be ready to start filming in two months. I thought ''I''ve got to learn French''. And I needed to learn it well enough to (be able to) improvise."

During the press conference, Blethyn was asked how she prepared for the part of Mrs Sommers (who is English but "feels completely alien" in her homeland) and was compared to Helen Mirren for her natural style of acting, "the best compliment one could give". "I was and still am ignorant of the Muslim faith," she explained, "but so was the character. Part of her feeling of fear is because the atrocity was carried out by a Muslim. When she first meets Ousman, she refuses his help. But she soon realises she was wrong."

Blethyn assured she was not worried about roles drying up due to her age and appearance: "I''m a bit lazy - I''ve no ego or ambition whatsoever. It doesn''t matter to me how big the role is, nor the type of character or whether she''s glamorous or not," explaining that her next role is playing an "ugly, fat, old" detective.

Naturally down-to-earth, Brenda Blethyn presented herself as equally self-effacing in front of the panel journalists, often admitting that she''d "gone off on a tangent" in her bid to give a full answer, then asking "does that answer your question?" She described her award-winning co-star as a "prince among men" and when asked how she felt about nearly winning the Berlin Silver Bear herself, replied "I didn''t know that I did!"

London River will be showing at the Festival until Saturday 26th September.