By Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer Published Apr 02, 2004 at 5:24 AM

{image1}Every now and again there is a touching and heartwarming film that also succeeds in being witty and intelligent without oozing too much sap. A decade or so ago, there was "Cinema Paradiso" and now there is Francois Dupeyron's wonderful "Monsieur Ibrahim" (perhaps Sony Pictures thought the rest of the title "... and the Flowers of the Koran" wouldn't fly with American audiences).

Omar Sharif stars as Ibrahim, a shopkeeper in 1960s Montmartre who slowly comes to befriend young Momo (Pierre Boulanger), who lives alone with his father across the street.

Momo's mother left them years before and both father and son struggle to live together in the shadow of her absence and in the absence of Momo's elder brother, whom his father (Gilbert Melki) assures him was much better than Momo at all things.

Momo, however, is a smart and inventive kid and when he turns 16, he cracks open his piggy bank to splurge on one of the numerous prostitutes that line his street. Soon, he manages to figure out how to make regular visits. Despite his experience in the sack (rented though it may be), Momo is still charmingly bumbling and naïve when it comes to the young girl downstairs that he begins to woo.

Momo is Jewish, yet this doesn't prevent him from being fascinated by Ibrahim's quotes from the Koran. Momo, after all, is happy and thankful that Ibrahim -- a Turk whose wife returned home years earlier, apparently unable to live in France -- provides Momo not only with gratis treats and foods, but shows him how to stretch his weekly food budget (he does the shopping, cooking and cleaning at home) and get back at his dad at the same time.

"Monsieur Ibrahim" is so simple, so sincere a film that it's a shame to give away any of the plot in advance. Suffice it to say, that over the course of 90 or so minutes, Momo and Ibrahim grow ever closer and each provides the other with a daily ray of sunshine.

At the same time, Momo and Ibrahim provide us with a image that many of us yearn for in the real world: the image of Muslim and Jew (or substitute Protestant and Catholic in Northern Ireland, Christian and Muslim, or whatever) not only getting along, but leaning on, and gaining strength and knowledge from, one another.

Not nearly as "magical" as "Amelie," "Monsieur Ibrahim" -- infused with the rollicking spirit of the nascent rock and roll movement, which provides the fabulously appropriate soundtrack -- has a similar spirit, however. Wistful and dreamy, it's grounded and in the end, quite powerful.

"Monsieur Ibrahim" opens Friday, April 2 at Landmark's Downer Theatre.

Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.

He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.

With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.

He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.

In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.

He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.