Sophia Loren, 86, returns to the big screen in emotional trailer for Netflix drama The Life Ahead – Daily Mail

Sophia Loren has made her return to acting as the trailer for her new film The Life Ahead has been released.

The legendary movie star, 86, who last appeared on screen in 2009, looked right at home as she stepped in front of the camera once again. 

In the film – which is directed by the star’s son Edoardo Ponti – Sophia plays a Jewish woman and Holocaust survivor named Madame Rosa who helps raise the children of prostitutes. 

The trailer sees Sophia’s character reluctantly agree to take in a 12-year-old Senegalese orphan named Momo (Ibrahima Gueuye) after he stole a bag from her.  

The pair struggle to live together at first as Rosa is seen saying: ‘He’s out of his mind. He’s not normal. He’s rotten to the core.’ 

However, they eventually form an unlikely bond and a teary Momo is heard saying of her: ‘It was the first time someone treated me like I was worthy of their trust.’ 

The film, which premieres worldwide on Netflix on November 13, is based on the novel The Life Before Us by Romain Gary. 

Speaking of her excitement about the project, Sophia told Deadline: ‘When my son proposed the role to me, it was a dream come true.

‘I jumped at the opportunity to make it. I loved portraying Madame Rosa. She is tough, she is fragile, she is a survivor. In many ways she reminds me of my own mother.’ 

Sophia drew international acclaim for the 1960 film Two Women which was about the ravages of World War II in her native Italy.

Her performance in the Vittorio De Sica movie made her the first person ever to earn an acting Oscar in a language other than English.

However she has not appeared onscreen in a feature film since Nine, Rob Marshall’s 2009 movie adaptation of a Broadway musical of the same name.

Nine was based on the seminal Italian movie 8 1/2 directed by Federico Fellini whom Sophia never worked with despite the two being stars at the same time.

She has kept working since Nine – she dubbed a role in Italian for the 2011 Pixar movie Cars 2 and has appeared in a short film.

A decade ago she also played her own mother Romilda in the Italian miniseries My House Is Full Of Mirrors, based on a book by her sister Maria Scicolone, who once spent a decade married to Benito Mussolini’s jazz pianist son Romano.

Sophia shares her sons Carlo, 51, and Edoardo, 47, with her late husband Carlo Ponti, a producer who was more than two decades her senior.

They first tied the knot in Mexico in 1957 while he was separated from but still legally married to his first wife Giuliana, with whom he had two other children.