I Love You Rosa

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.

In alphabetical order

• Zivi Avramson - Esther
• Naomi Bachar - Luna
• Michal Bat-Adam - Rosa
• Yehuda Efroni - Don Yitzhak
• Levana Finkelstein - Jamila
• Esther Grotes - Alegra
• Gunther Hirschberg - narrator
• Avner Hizkiyahu - Rabbi
• Elisheva Michaeli - Regina
• Gabi Otterman - young Nissim
• Aliza Rosen - Rabbi's wife
• Yosef Shiloach - Eli
• Moshe Tal - adult Nissim
• Sharit Yishai - Fortuna

• List of submissions to the 45th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Israeli submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

• I Love You Rosa at IMDb