Monsieur Ibrahim

Synopsis: Sixteen year old Momo (Pierre Boulanger ) lives alone with his depressed father in the red light district of Paris. Aside from cooking dinner for his papa and amusing himself with visits to the local prostitutes, Momo gradually forms a deep and sweet friendship with an old Turkish man, Monsieur Ibrahim, aka "the Arab", (Omar Sharif) who runs the local convenience store. The fact that Moses is Jewish and Ibrahim is Muslim is no stumbling block to their friendship.

Francois Dupeyron's film is lighter than air, more delicate than a spider's web, and yet deals with a subject perhaps as weighty as anything - the life-changing capabilities of friendship, and what can happen when an older and wiser person takes a younger one under the wing and imparts life's wisdom.

This simple and somewhat sentimental coming-of-age story is elevated by the subtle acting of the two leads and by the unobtrusive-yet-assured direction of Dupeyron. Omar Sharif has a filmography spanning half a century and is still going strong. It is a delight to see him in a role like this and with a finely nuanced performance, Sharif brings complete authenticity to his character, a old man whose integrity is born of belief in a set of rules, as he regularly espouses when he tells Momo "I know what is in my Koran". Similarly young Boulanger's Momo is a treat to watch - a beautiful young man with confidence, yet humility; a youth hungry to discover life.

The film begins in a very confined area with the camera work giving a sense of almost claustrophobic intimacy - the small steps from Moses' apartment, to the street below, to the convenience store and the daily repetition gives a false sense of security. When the film breaks out into a quite unexpected final quarter, the horizons of the characters expand, and so too do those of the audience. It would be wrong to reveal much of what takes place in it closing section, but Monsieur Ibrahim is the sort of film-making that that gives us hope - a sense of unity and possibility combined with the sadness that inevitably goes with growing up.

 

 

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