Louise Vera

The actors were great. The script needed to be workshopped. Too convoluted.

Powerfully acted, wonderfully filmed in Bari, Italy, this story reflects contemporary Europe where an aging Holocaust survivor takes a Senegalese Muslim street kid into her daycare. Sophia Loren is amazing and her young co-star is delightful to watch. The script is based on the Romain Gary novel. Gary himself was an eastern European Jew who fought in WWII for the Free French forces as a pilot, wrote 70 novels, the script for the film The Longest Day and served as a French diplomat. Heads up, French language lovers! Just by chance I noticed the US Netflix trailer is in French—in much more vivid language (likewise in the English captions)than the English version. Since it’s an Italian production, I suspect the same would be true for their version.