Polanski film 'opinion changing'

A new film about controversial director Roman Polanski will be "opinion changing", its director said.

The 90-minute documentary - titled Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir - tells Polanski's turbulent life story.

Director Laurent Bouzereau said the film, which is at this year's Cannes Film Festival, was to show people who think they know Polanski's story that they may not have it right.

"They know the stories the media want them to know, or they've heard something and therefore they make an assumption," Bouzereau said.

"But really only he knows the story, only he knows how to tell the story. Yes, it's his own perspective but there are certain facts that are stated in this movie that I believe are important because they've not really been stated properly until now."

Polanski, now 78, pleaded guilty to having unlawful intercourse with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in the US in 1977. He fled the US on the eve of sentencing and was re-arrested in Zurich in 2009 and then spent months in prison and under house arrest but avoided extradition. He' since apologised to his victim and settled a civil case with her in the 90s.

In 1969 his wife, American actress Sharon Tate, was eight and a half months pregnant when she was murdered by followers of Charles Manson. In 1943 his half-Jewish mother was taken to Birkenau, part of the Auschwitz complex, where she was killed in a gas chamber.

The film was shot when Polanski was under house arrest, and shows him talking about some of these matters.

Bouzereau previously organised a screening in LA for industry professionals.

He said: "I do feel that it's an opinion changing movie - that's the way I've experienced it from people who had a strong opinion against him coming out of it."