Dupeyron, François, Boulanger, Pierre, Melki, Gilbert, Naymark, Lola, Renauld, Isabelle, Sharif, Omar	...	(Director)
François Dupeyron, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt	...	(Writer)
Omar Sharif	...	Monsieur Ibrahim Deneji
Pierre Boulanger	...	Moses 'Momo' Schmitt
Gilbert Melki	...	Le père de 'Momo'
Isabelle Renauld	...	La mère de 'Momo'
Lola Naymark	...	Myriam
Anne Suarez	...	Sylvie
Mata Gabin	...	Fatou
Céline Samie	...	Eva
Isabelle Adjani	...	La star
Guillaume Gallienne	...	Le vendeur voiture
Guillaume Rannou	...	Le realisateur
Manuel Le Lièvre	...	Le moniteur auto-école
Daniel Znyk	...	Le gendarme
Françoise Armelle	...	La maitresse d'école
Sylvie Herbert	...	L'eximinateur
Claude Merlin	...	Le notaire
Pascal Vincent	...	Le bouquiniste
Tessa Volkine	...	Myriam's Mother
Marie-Sophie Ahmadi	...	Nadia
Maryse Deol	...	L'employer administrative #1
Gérard Bôle du Chaumont	...	L'employer administrative #2
François Toumarkine	...	L'employer administrative #3
Sylvie Debrun	...	L'employer administrative #4
Önder K. Açikbas	...	Motocycliste
Jeremy Sitbon	...	Momo 8 ans
Eric Caravaca	...	Momo 30 ans

Comments: DFR 127

Summary: Some crowded Parisian atmosphere and the burnished presence of Omar Sharif make this coming-of-age tale a pleasure. It's the early 1960s, and an adolescent Jewish boy (Pierre Boulanger), mostly left to his own devices by an ineffectual father, makes friends with the worldly wise Persian man (Sharif) who runs a small neighborhood grocery. The kid's fumbling experiences with sexual curiosity are the reliable stuff of many a French movie, but the unlikely friendship of young Jew and old Muslim make for an offbeat through-line. Francois Dupeyron's film shifts gears in its final section, moving from its flavorful location and into the wide-open spaces, and it goes on too long with too many pieces of advice. But overall this is a warm and winning experience, with Omar Sharif holding an instructive class in the power of understated movie-star charisma. --Robert Horton