Mumbai, April 28 : Oscar winning-actress Angelina Jolie's biographical drama 'Maria' is all set to premiere on Lionsgate from May 9.

The film unveils the untold stories behind Maria Callas' rise to fame and enduring legacy, set against the dramatic backdrop of 1970s Paris.

Talking about how she felt for the real Maria Callas, Angelina had said: 'I care for her deeply. I'm very moved by her, and I'm so happy we had the opportunity to show her as a human being. There's something I learned about her, that she couldn't see. When someone looked at the prescription glasses that she wore later in her life, they said to Pablo, 'That lens, that prescription, this person's almost legally blind.'

She added: 'Wow. When she was young, she couldn't wear those glasses and be on stage. It wasn't accepted, so she had to memorize everything very differently. When you understand that, you see this person's survival instinct. It wasn't that she just wanted to be this; she had to survive and hide it and find a way around it and work twice as hard.'

Jolie shared that 'Maria was pushed into singing as a young person by her mother, and when she was able to give it everything she had and be her best, she communicated something to people that was transformative.'

'But as she got older and made choices in her life and different things happened, that same audience punished her for not being able to do that for them anymore. She had an enormous amount of pressure on her. And I think she was a very sensitive person.'

Maria stars Angelina Jolie as opera singer Maria Callas, and follows the seven days before her 1977 death in Paris, as she reflects on her life and career. It also stars Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Stephen Ashfield, Valeria Golino, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

It is the third film in Larraín's trilogy of 20th-century iconic women, following Jackie, and Spencer.

/IANS