The House on Chelouche Street

The House on Chelouche Street (Hebrew: הבית ברחוב שלוש, romanizedHaBayit b'Rechov Shalosh) is a 1973 semi-autobiographical film by Israeli director Moshé Mizrahi, who also co-wrote the screenplay. It was filmed in Hebrew, Egyptian Arabic and Judeo-Spanish (a.k.a. Ladino, a Jewish language mostly derived from Old Castilian). The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[1]

The House on Chelouche Street
Film poster
Directed byMoshé Mizrahi
Written byRachel Fabien
Yerech Guber
Moshé Mizrahi
Produced byYoram Globus (executive producer)
Menahem Golan (producer)
StarringGila Almagor
CinematographyAdam Greenberg
Edited byDov Hoenig
Music byDov Seltzer
Release date
  • 1973 (1973)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryIsrael
LanguagesHebrew
Egyptian Arabic
Ladino

Plot

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The film tells the story of a Sephardi family of Egyptian Jewish immigrants from Alexandria that settle in 1947 Tel Aviv. The family consists of a 33-year-old widowed wife, Clara, (played by Gila Almagor, one of the most prominent actresses in Israel for the last three decades) and her four children. They live in a working-class neighborhood surrounded by their extended family, including Clara's mother Mazal, Clara's uncle Rafael, and Sultana, his wife.

The plot centers on the firstborn, Sami, his transition from a shy 15-year-old to a working man and an activist in the "Irgun" (a resistance movement that acted mainly against the military forces of the British), and the romantic attachment he develops with a 25-year-old Russian immigrant librarian (Michal Bat-Adam, now a director). In addition to this, Clara struggles between social pressure to take a husband and her own complex feelings surrounding this, complicated by another Sephardi Egyptian, played by Yosef Shiloach, who has strong feelings for her.

The film is a vivid and very credible description of the lives of Sephardi immigrant families on the eve of the declaration of the state of Israel. Also covered are the escalating violence between British forces and the local populace, as well as Palestinian Arab violence towards Jews.

Cast

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The 46th Academy Awards (1974) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
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