29/08/2003 - Directed by Dupeyron, the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion celebrates 50 years in films with a great portrayal in praise of tolerance

Omar Sharif, one of the world’s most elegant actors, made a stylish return to cinema after several years' absence. The 71-year-old Egyptian-born actor is scheduled to receive a Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion tonight, and will present his latest film, Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran. Francois Dupeyron’s wonderful film is based on Eric Emmanuel Schmitt’s eponymous novel and it rejoices in the joy of life and laughter.

Set in 1960s Paris and enbellished by a score that combines French chansons with American rock and roll, the film is reminiscent of the Nouvelle Vague. M. Ibrahim... is an elegant and ironic tale about the friendship that develops between an elderly Arab shopkeeper and a young Jew (Pierre Boulanger, a contemporary clone of Truffaut’s Antoin Doinel). “This is about a meeting of two solitudes,” said Sharif. “It’s a film about love and tolerance.”

The director came up with an intelligent answer to the hatred permeating contemporary society: “We build the barriers that separate people. But that is precisely why these barriers can be knocked down,” a fact of life that this lovely 94-minute-long film acknowledges that most distinctly.

(Translated from Italian)