“The Life Ahead” (Netflix)

Sophia Loren’s son, Edoardo Ponti’s new film”The Life Ahead” centers around the growing relationship between Momo, a troubled twelve year old orphaned Senegalese immigrant (played by Ibrahima Gueye) and Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor and former prostitute, now in her late eighties (played by Sophia Loren). It’s a sentimental tear jerker. And I highly recommend it. Mick LaSalle of the SF Chronicle panned it. He hated the protagonist, Momo,–calling him “obnoxious” and objected to the lack of development of Loren’s character. True, little is known about Madame Rosa except in her current role as caretaker of the children of prostitutes. Likewise, we are given very little history of any of the other figures in the film. But to bemoan that is to miss the point. Set in Bari, a coastal city of Southern Italy with an increasing number of illegal immigrants and growing xenophobia, “The Life Ahead” is a film about possibilities, a world where Muslims, Jews, Transgenders, African immigrants are accepted with compassion and love. It is a propaganda film for tolerance. And that’s fine with me.