Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran (film)

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Movie
German title Monsieur Ibrahim and the flowers of the Koran
Original title Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 2003
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
JMK 10
Rod
Director François Dupeyron
script Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
François Dupeyron
production Laurent Pétin
Michèle Pétin
music Philippe Miller
camera Remy Chevrin
cut Dominique Faysse
occupation

Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran is a French film directed by François Dupeyron in 2003. It became an international hit and a late comeback for Omar Sharif in the title role, who won multiple awards for his role design. It is above all a coming-of-age film , a milieu study and a father-son story, and in the last third it becomes a road movie ; Overall, the film mixes traits of a film drama and a film comedy .

action

The film is set in Paris as well as in Istanbul and Anatolia . The plot corresponds roughly to that of the eponymous novel by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt , but some scenes have been shortened or slightly changed. In the novel, the Jewish boy Moses, who is the central character of the film alongside the old shopkeeper Ibrahim, is eleven years old and 16 years old in the film. In addition, unlike in the book, the storyline does not take place in the 1970s, but rather in the late 1950s, a year characterized by jazz and rock 'n' roll music.

Moses lives with his single father, whose job is not explained in detail (in the novel he is a lawyer ), in modest circumstances in a Jewish district in Paris. The father does not treat his son badly, but neglects him and gives him more housework than his age: Moses has to go shopping, keep the apartment in order and serve the father food and a bottle of wine in the evening. The father, whose wife and mother of Momo left the family years ago with the older brother Popol (Eng. Paul), suffers from depression and digestive problems . Again and again he holds up Moses' absent brother as a shining example. In his free time he does nothing with his son, but devotes himself to studying his extensive book collection.

When Moses is at home alone, he watches the prostitutes going about their business on the nearby street through the window . One day he slaughters his piggy bank and buys the love services of a whore with it : he has the first sex of his life with the busty blonde Sylvie. She and her colleagues, with whom he is also gradually having sex, are all nice and motherly to Moses.

Since Moses needs money to visit prostitutes and to buy new records , he begins to divert money from the household budget and, when his father discovers him, steals groceries in Monsieur Ibrahim's shop. The shopkeeper notices the theft, but is silent at first and lets the boy have his way. On the contrary: the two become friends, the meek, patient and liberal old man supports the adolescent with wise advice and soon takes on a kind of fatherhood for the neglected boy. He gives him advice on life and underpins his sayings with “That's what my Koran says ”. To Moses' astonished question as to why he drinks alcohol as a Muslim , Ibrahim replies that he is a Sufi and does not interpret the Koran literally and according to the law, but rather mystically . Moses begins to study Islam more closely and also receives a copy of the Koran from him. So far he has had little in mind with religion ; he and his father are Jews, but not believers.

One day Ibrahim confesses that he has caught Momo - that's what he calls the boy - for a long time. Momo is ashamed and wants to repay the money. Ibrahim refuses and gives him advice on saving money, such as serving his father cat food as a pie, baking bread from the day before and pouring cheap red wine into the empty bottles of expensive ones. Moses followed this advice and stopped the thefts.

The friendship between him and the old shop owner expands and becomes more intense. Ibrahim is lonely too. He does not want to talk about his wife's whereabouts; later he says that she returned home many years ago. He has neither children nor friends. He spends every day in his shop until late at night, including on public holidays, and is therefore called “the Arab ” in the neighborhood, even though he is Turkish . Increasingly, Moses keeps him company in the shop. One day they watch a blonde starlet filming with a film crew and a red sports car in their street, with the whole neighborhood curiously converging. The star buys a bottle of water from Ibrahim, which he sells overpriced with a bold but nice saying. The appearance of the character is based on Brigitte Bardot , but the name does not appear in the film. Ibrahim now leaves the shop more often, looks at the beautiful side of Paris with the boy, buys him shoes and goes to a Turkish bath with him . In the meantime, Moses falls seriously in love with the neighbor girl Myriam, Jewish like him, but experiences a disappointment. Even now Ibrahim comforts him and builds him up.

One day Moses' father loses his job and disappears without a trace, leaving the son only a few goodbye lines and the rest of the money he saved. Moses, initially shocked, soon recovered and even began to enjoy the new freedom; At first he does not tell Ibrahim either of the father's disappearance. Little by little he sells his father's valuable book collection at flea market dealers and second-hand bookshops and makes ends meet without being noticed.

One day the police appear and tell him that his father threw himself in front of a train near Marseille . Ibrahim supports him during this time, but initially does not intervene in his life. When Moses is renovating the apartment, suddenly his missing mother appears, who last saw him as a baby. Moses pretends to be "Mohammed", hides his true identity and sends away those who are strangers to him. Before that he found out that his “brother”, with whom his father had often compared him, was an invention of his father and that he is an only child. Moses asks Ibrahim to adopt him , which finally succeeds after some arguments with the authorities. Moses moves in with Ibrahim, continues to school and helps in the shop.

Ibrahim buys a red sports car and gets his driver's license , with Moses helping him. Then the two set off on a long journey across Europe to Turkey. There they spend some time in Istanbul, where they visit not only a mosque but also Christian churches. A central point within the film plot is the visit of the two to the Sufi Mevlevi order of the dancing dervishes . Moses meets Turkish youths who dress and listen to similar music to their peers in Paris.

Then the two set off for Ibrahim's home in Anatolia. Shortly before arriving in a remote valley in a very barren mountain region, Ibrahim asks Moses to get out of the car and wait for him. At first he had to go this way alone, because he didn't know what to expect at home after so long. The confused Moses gives in, Ibrahim roars away. Moses meets a group of village children who surround him and are curious about the instant camera he has with him. Moses, who doesn't know where to go, decides to follow Ibrahim on foot, the most lively of the village boys accompanies him. Suddenly a motorcycle rushes at it, the driver calls for Moses and tells him to get on. Moses puts the camera in the hand of the stunned boy and drives with him to the village, past Ibrahim's crashed sports car. He is led into the house and into a room where Ibrahim is being looked after in a bed by a woman in national dress. He is dying after a car accident. Moses is desperate, but Ibrahim is very calm and says that he has now arrived home. Then he tells Moses that his wife died many years ago, but that he still loves her. The death of Ibrahim is not shown, nor is it shown how Moses finds his way back home.

In Paris, an executor tells him that Ibrahim has left him, as his son, all of his property, including the shop. Among the remains is an old leather-bound edition of the Koran. When Moses opens it, he finds a few dried blue flowers inside - the flowers of the Koran. It is not explained what the reason for them is. In the final scene you can see the grown-up Moses in his shop. He is now "the Arab" in the neighborhood.

Remarks

The estate administrator calls Moses “Moses Schmitt” like the author of the novel - an indication that the story could be partly autobiographical .

Isabelle Adjani took on the small role of the star .

Reviews

  • Film service: A sympathetic plea for humanity, tolerance and hope, located between fairy tales and reality, told in beautiful pictures with a lot of sense for the zeitgeist.
  • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : It is as if Monsieur Ibrahim had been waiting for Sharif. Got better than the book.
  • Der Tagesspiegel : Modern fairy tale with the caliber of the 'Little Prince', funny and touching at the same time.

Awards

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Age designation for Monsieur Ibrahim and the flowers of the Koran . Youth Media Commission .