Berger, whose credits include the Oscar-winning “All Quiet on the Western Front,” described “Conclave” as a “chess game of political intrigue” that could have taken place at a multinational company or in Washington. A top job is open, and people are vying for it. “It just happens to be within the Vatican,” he said.

Based on a bestselling novel by Robert Harris, the Oscar-tipped film imagines what goes on behind the scenes of the secretive process – complete with scheming, smearing and leaking.

Starring Ralph Fiennes and set within the private inner sanctum of the Vatican, the movie treats the papal balloting like a thriller.