1972 Israeli film
I Love You Rosa (Hebrew: אני אוהב אותך רוזה, romanized: Ani Ohev Otach Roza) is a 1972 Israeli film directed by Moshé Mizrahi. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[1] It was also entered into the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.[2]
Plot
Based on the life of director Mizrachi's mother[3][4] in late 19th century Jerusalem, the flashback-framed plot involves a young, childless, Sephardic-Mizrahi widow under pressure to comply with ancient law and eventually marry her late husband's little brother, Nissim, a grief-stricken eleven-year-old at odds with his other brother and sister-in-law, in whose home he lives. Much against her inclination for independence,[5] the widowed Rosa takes him in with the rabbi's permission, earning a living for them both, and seeing to his education and beginnings of a gainful occupation for him. As he grows into an adolescent with changing affections toward her, and other suitors remain open to her,[6][7] conflicts flare. And Nissim disappears. Five years later, when he returns as a young man, it is from Europe, with an education and livelihood of his own, confronting Rosa's determination to possess her own freedom, and the long-postponed legal decision between them.[8]
Jerusalem had a brief but heavy snowfall during the shoot; the filmmakers incorporated it beautifully into the script rather than work around it.
