Film: The Life Ahead

The Life Ahead poster

Legendary actress Sophia Loren, now 86, gives a powerful performance in this touching, life-affirming story about the friendship between retired prostitute and Holocaust survivor Madam Rosa and an illegal 12 year-old migrant Momo (Ibrahima Gueye) from Senegal who she reluctantly puts up, at the request of a local retired doctor. Unable to go to school because he has no papers, Momo has been living on the streets for a long time, earning his living by stealing and hiding from immigration police. (It is a sad indictment that such situations are really taking place in European cities today.)

Based on a novel by Romain Gary, the film is set in the seaside town of Bari - and has a colourful cast of characters including a transgender working girl played by Abril Zamora, Babak Karimi as a Muslim antique dealer who invites Momo to help him in his shop and Massimiliao Rossi as a drug pusher who employs him as a delivery boy.

This film was directed by Sophia's son Edoardo Ponti. On Tuesday it was announced that Sophia Loren has just been nominated for the International Film Festival's Humanitarian Award for her role. I wonder if she will be nominated for an Academy Award next. She would get my vote.

The Life Ahead has only been released on Netflix.

Watch the official trailer here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ejncDxgCc