Oscar-winning actress Sophia Loren is returning to the big screen for the first time in a decade, with her new feature film, “La vita davanti a sé” (“The Life Ahead”).

The film is being directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti.

Loren, 84, plays the role of Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor who forges a bond with a Senegalese immigrant boy.

According to Variety, the film is an adaptation of Romain Gary’s novel “La vie devant soi,” which was previously adapted for the big screen by Israeli filmmaker Moshe Mizrahi as “Madame Rosa,” starring Simone Signoret. That film won the 1978 foreign-language Oscar.

Loren plays the same role as Signoret, though her son said the two adaptations are quite different.

Production is underway in Italy, and Loren is working 10-hour days on set.

Born in Rome on Sept. 20, 1934, Sophia Loren — the Italian queen of Tinseltown — is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant, Loren began her film career at age 16 in 1950.

She appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade, until her five-picture contract with Paramount in 1956 launched her international career. Notable film appearances around this time include The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, and It Started in Naples, according to Wikipedia.

But critics didn’t fall in love with Loren until her performance as Cesira in Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women. Loren’s performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1962 and made her the first actress to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance.

Her new film, “The Life Ahead,” will be released in March 2020.

(Featured image credit: Georges Biard)