I Love You Rosa is an Israeli film from 1972, directed by Moshe Mizrahi.
Jerusalem, 1887. A young man named Rafael dies unexpectedly, leaving his wife, Rosa, a widow at the age of twenty. Ancient Jewish law (in fact, Deuteronomy 25:5-10) dictates that if a husband dies and leaves his widow without a son, his brother must marry the widow. Rafael's only unmarried brother, Nissim, is quite willing to do it, except for one problem: Nissim is only 11 years old.
So Nissim stays with his family while Rosa is expected to wait—naturally, no one asks Rosa if she consents to this. Nissim, however, doesn't get along with his brother David's wife (David being head of the family). Eventually he flees to Rosa's house and demands to live with her. Nissim's mother Regina protests, but after the rabbi signs off, Rosa agrees to take Nissim in. Thus they begin an odd relationship that is semi-parental, with Rosa being a grown woman looking after a boy, and semi-spousal, with Nissim simply assuming that one day, when he's old enough, he'll marry Rosa.
Tropes:
- As the Good Book Says...: During the Framing Device at the beginning of the film, the relevant passage from Deuteronomy appears onscreen as a narrator reads it off.
- As You Know: Regina the mother does a lot of this in the scene at the beginning where the family is sitting shiva, addressing David and referring to Rafael as "your younger brother", addressing Eli and talking about how Rafael worked for him, then addressing Rosa and explicating that she is now a childless widow of 20.
- The Big Damn Kiss: The 1800s part of the story ends with a big kiss between Nissim and Rosa when they're reunited.
- Call-Back: Nissim, now a grown man, goes with an I Have This Friend story when reuniting with Rosa after five years away. At the end, Rosa repeats the I Have This Friend story back to him, when explaining that she knows someone who fell in love with a young man but still couldn't marry him if she were compelled to do it.
- Framing Device: Rosa, who is about 100, goes to visit the grave of Nissim who's been dead 40 years. After coming home, escorted by a descendant who's the spitting image of young Nissim, she starts reminiscing, and the story jumps back 80 years or so to 1887.
- Gossip Evolution: The women of the neighborhood are incurable gossips. Regina flips out and causes a public scene after her son runs away to Rosa's house. The Gossipy Hens blow this up into Regina catching Rosa and Nissim in bed together and stabbing the both of them to death, with blood supposedly running in the streets.
- Grave-Marking Scene: The movie opens with Rosa visiting Nissim's grave and chatting for a while. She says that so many buildings have sprung up in the neighborhood that now she has to go to the roof to watch the moon.
- Headbutt of Love: After an emotional scene has Nissim say "Rosa, say that you will not leave me," the two do the headbutt of love. It's an early confirmation that yes, she's starting to develop feelings for him despite the fact that he still isn't old enough to shave.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Men of the neighborhood turn to watch Rosa as she strolls down the street.
- Identical Grandson: The same child actor plays both young Nissim in the flashback story, and Nissim and Rosa's descendant in the Framing Device.
- I Have This Friend: When a now-grown Nissim returns to Rosa after five years away, he tells her that he's come on behalf of Nissim who is waiting for her elsewhere in the city. She isn't fooled and indeed he seems to know that she is not fooled.
- Love Triangle: An odd one between Rosa, her husband's former employer Eli who pays a call that makes it clear he's interested in her, and Rosa's pubescent ward Nissim, who fully expects to marry her one day and is jealous of Eli.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The death of Rosa's husband Rafael of "a cough" sets the story in motion.
- Say My Name: A now-grown Nissim returns after five years away, and he and Rosa make love—but then she refuses to marry him. He is left in his room in anguish, shouting "Rosa! Rosa! ROOOOSAAAAAAAA!".
- Secret Test of Character: Nissim makes his return, only for Rosa to refuse to marry him and demand her freedom instead. She reveals at the end that even though she loves him, she has to have her freedom, and he had to give her that freedom to show that he really loved her and didn't just view her as an entitlement.
- Shameful Strip: A random scene unconnected to the rest of the story has the women of the neighborhood dragging another woman through the street, screaming "Harlot!" and ripping her clothes off. Presumably she's a prostitute. Rosa takes her in and gives her shelter from the mob.
- Staggered Zoom: Nissim's Say My Name "Rosa! Rosa! ROOOOSAAAAAAAA!" moment towards the end is accompanied by a staggered zoom out each time he says her name.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Two different actors play Nissim as a tween and as a young adult.
- Time Skip: A title card saying "FIVE YEARS PASS FOR ROSA" introduces the last act of the story, when Nissim, now an adult, returns.
- Title Drop: Nissim says "I love you, Rosa" during one of their first nights together, when he says he should work and save her having to do sewing. He says it again later, when he completes his apprenticeship in Eli's business and starts earning a salary; the latter moment triggers the argument that causes Nissim to leave the house.
- Wife Husbandry: A gender flip. Rosa takes 11-year-old Nissim in as her ward, with Nissim already assuming that he'll marry her once he's old enough to take a wife. She has mixed feelings about the arrangement.
