Titine Levy, portrayed by Sophia Loren in Roger Hanin's Soleil, is an impoverished Jewish mother, trying to raise five children in Vichy-dominated French Algeria during World War II. Her husband, working with false identity papers in France, sends her money whenever he can, but she must sell off her furniture, then resort to borrowing, cheating, even stealing, to feed her family in a society where Jews were fired from post office jobs like the one she held.

In a society where there is no fairness, Mme. Levy and her children do not hesitate to break the rules. Her two boys become carriers: one for black marketeers, the other for pimps. The family lies to the local Arab shopkeeper about when they can pay for their food; pilfers goods from a dressmaker and sells carpets entrusted to them by a wealthy Jewish shopowner. Even worse, they refuse to give charity to their cousin Esther, who publicly begs with her two children on the streets of Algiers. In one of the movie's most troubling scenes, the family hides behind the door of their apartment as Esther and the children pound on their door.

Sophia Loren portrays Mme Titine Levy of Algiers in the movie Soleil directed by Roger Hanin.

Mme. Levy is neither saint nor the "woman of valor" praised by our Jewish tradition; but there is no doubting, not even for a moment, that she has managed to feed her family in adverse conditions and has kept them together. As portrayed by Sophia Loren, she is a complex character; her deceitfulness in dealing with others seemingly offset by the tenderness and love with which she raises her own children.

Besides being a story of life in times of privation, the French-language, English-subtitled Soleil (Sun) also is a charming coming-of-age story in which we see 13-year-old Meyer Levy (portrayed by Nicolas Olczyk) play street hockey; get arrested for painting communist slogans on a wall; faint the first time he kisses a girl; visit his first prostitute; and get drunk and silly with a friend shortly after being fired by an anti-Semite from a job at the fishmonger's.

The film also hints at the complex relationship between Jews and Arabs in colonial Algeria. The Jews were higher up the social rung; but there were some true friendships between the two peoples--a fact that we often forget given the unremitting political warfare between Arab and Jew over the creation of the State of Israel.

The photography is rich and so warm that one is tempted to wonder can the world really be so pretty in times of privation? Apparently when there is love--particularly the enduring, life-sustaining love of a mother for her children--it really can.

"Soleil" will open the Feb. 16-25 San Diego Jewish Film Festival when it is aired at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 16, at the AMC La Jolla 12 Theatres. For ticket information, phone the Lawrence Family JCC at (619) 457-3030.