Django 1.0 Testing: how do I get a session to persist between test code and view being tested?

Question

I am trying to test how a view behaves when there is certain data stored in the session. To do so I have created the session in the test method and invoked an interactive shell at the very beginning of the view:

Test Method:

def test_user_with_unused_tests(self):
    "User is given a test and sent to test start"
    # todo: insure that the user is given a test that he hasn't done

    #login
    login = self.client.login(username='xxx', password='xxx')
    self.failUnless(login)

    # build the screener
    user = User(username='xxx', password='xxx')
    user_screener = UserScreener(user=user)

    # put the screener in session
    self.client.session['user_screener'] = user_screener

View That Is Tested:

@login_required
def screener_start(request):

    import code
    code.interact(local=locals())

But apparently the session does not persist between my test method and the call to the view:

Evidence of Nonpersistence:

>>> request.session.values()
[1, 'django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend']

Is there any way to fix this? Am I missing something essential?

I am using Django 1.0.

Thanks ahead of time for your thoughts.