Acting legend Sophia Loren's last feature film performance was in Nine back in 2009. So her return to the screen is a welcome one, and she's a key part of Edoardo Ponti's The Life Ahead, which has a trailer online.
Adapted by Ponti, Fabio Natale and Ugo Chiti from Romain Gary's novel, The Life Ahead is set in the colourful Italian port city of Bari, where streetwise 12-year-old Senegalese orphan Momo (Ibrahima Gueye) has ambitions to make his fortune in the underworld of the town’s shady alleyways. One day, he steals a bag of items from the elderly Madame Rosa (Loren), a Holocaust survivor who makes a meagre living raising the children of prostitutes with whom she once shared the streets.
When Momo is forced to apologize to Rosa, she reluctantly agrees to take him in temporarily and the two lonely individuals find an unlikely family in each other through a deep and unconventional bond. The kindred spirits become connected to a common destiny that will change the course of their lives.
The Life Ahead will be on limited UK cinema release in November ahead of its arrival on Netflix on 13 November.