Simone Signoret turned down the lead role repeatedly for a year under the advice of her husband Yves Montand before finally taking it on.
France's official submission to the 1978's Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
Like the character she plays, Simone Signoret was Jewish and managed to survive the Nazi occupation. The actress insisted on having a tattoo painted on the inside of her wrist with the number that marks Rosa out as a deportee to Auschwitz, even though this cannot actually be seen in the film.