Once Upon My Mother

In this inspiring, emotional, and often funny real-life drama set in the 1960s, the matriarch of a bustling Jewish immigrant family from Morocco living in Paris will do anything to give her son the best life despite physical setbacks. Born with a clubfoot, Roland is unable to walk, yet his mother, Esther (Algerian French actress Leila Bekhti, in a flamboyant, tour de force performance), is determined, and a bit obsessed to help him live a “normal” life. The film follows Roland into adulthood, as his maternal relationship grown increasingly complicated. A fiery and wondrous adaptation of an autobiographical novel by French writer and radio personality Roland Perez, featuring music by Sylvie Vartan, who plays herself in the film, the film beautifully demonstrates the complex phenomenon of a mother’s single-minded, against-all-odds devotion.