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Academy Award-winning legend Sophia Loren is set to appear in her first feature-length film in over a decade, reported Variety on Friday.
Tentatively titled “The Life Ahead,” the movie is being directed by her son Edoardo Ponti and is expected to complete production next March.
According to Variety, 84-year-old Loren will portray a Holocaust survivor who forms emotional bonds with a a trans woman, a 10-year-old Romanian orphan and a preteen Senegalese immigrant in present-day Bari, Italy.
“It’s best for us to focus on the characters, to focus on the emotions . . . and then it’s up to the audience to talk about the politics behind them,” explained Ponti.
Loren was married to renowned film producer Carlo Ponti for 45 years until his death in 2007. Their marriage was annulled in 1962 before remarrying in 1966.
Her last appearance on the big screen was in 2009 as Daniel Day-Lewis’ mother in the Oscar-nominated romantic musical “Nine,” based on Federico Fellini’s “81/2.”
In 2011, she dubbed the voice of Mama Topolino in the Italian version of “Cars 2.” The character is voiced by Vanessa Redgrave in the original.
Loren became the first actor to win an Academy Award for an Italian-language performance for 1961’s “Two Women.” She received her second Best Actress nomination three years later for “Marriage Italian Style.”
In 1999, she presented countryman Roberto Benigni with the Oscar for Best Foreign Language winner “Life Is Beautiful.” Benigni famously walked on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seats to reach the stage and embrace Loren.
