The House on Chelouche Street is a 1973 semi-autobiographical film by
Israeli director Moshé Mizrahi, 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.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 movie 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, as well as the
escalating violence between British forces and the local populace, as
well as Palestinian Arab violence towards Jews.
Israeli director Moshé Mizrahi, 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.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 movie 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, as well as the
escalating violence between British forces and the local populace, as
well as Palestinian Arab violence towards Jews.
Share this
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
Join us for free and get valuable content delivered right through your inbox.