Three Mothers

Nominated for nine Israeli Academy Awards, Three Mothers is the multigenerational saga of beautiful triplets: Flora, Yasmin and Rose Hakim were born in 1942 in Alexandria, Egypt, to privileged Jewish parents who named them after flowers and called upon no less than King Farouk to bless them at their birth. With such an auspicious beginning you would think the sisters’ lives would be charmed, but (taking a cue from Tolstoy) director Dina Zvi-Riklis is much more fascinated by troubled family dynamics than by happy ones. Her tale follows the family to Israel and, over the course of 60 years, reveals the Hakim sisters coming to terms with long-buried secrets and passions. At the center is the “wild sister,” Rose, played in her later years by the gifted Gila Almagor. Rose, vain and self-centered, was a successful singer in her youth but has become withdrawn since the death of her husband. The songs of young Rose (performed in French, Hebrew and Arabic throughout the film) are a haunting, lyrical reminder of the world they have left behind. For the Hakim family, the truth-telling is triggered when ailing Yasmin suddenly shows up at her niece’s video production company and insists on making a tape revealing her family’s deepest mysteries. It sparks a round of confessions that turns all of their lives upside down. Three Mothers explores how the closest relationships—sisterhood, motherhood, marriage—can be both tender and vicious, and how fierce loyalties are forged and tested over time.