Once Upon My Mother

<p><img alt="Laurel icon denoting the film is in competition for a Jury Prize." border="0" src="https://data.ajff.org/sites/default/files/2025-12/laurels_Jury%20Award%20Nominee%20Blue_01_0.png" style="width:20%; max-width:20%; margin-left:10px; float:right;" />A sweeping, laughter-through-tears family saga spanning 1960s Paris to the present, this exuberant crowd-pleaser traces a Moroccan-Jewish mother’s unshakable belief that love, faith, and sheer willpower can rewrite her son’s destiny.</p><p>Leïla Bekhti delivers a radiant, powerhouse turn as Esther Perez, a spirited immigrant whose world is upended when she’s told her newborn son has a severe clubfoot and will never walk. Refusing to accept such a fate, she launches a relentless—and often riotously funny—campaign: storming clinics, sparring with specialists, and invoking both medical miracles and divine intervention to give her child the future he deserves. Armed with chutzpah, superstition, and ironclad maternal resolve, she shepherds Roland through painful clinical treatments, schoolyard humiliations, brushes with antisemitism, and the liberating discovery of French pop culture and Jewish superstar Sylvie Vartan. As Roland comes into his own (portrayed in adulthood by Jonathan Cohen), Esther’s devotion becomes both anchor and storm, her boundless love clashing with his need for independence, artistic ambition, and the right to define his own life. </p> <p> Inspired by Roland Perez’s bestselling memoir, this French box-office sensation radiates warmth, humor, and irresistible emotional uplift. Director Ken Scott and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman drench every frame in vibrant period color and the nostalgic pulse of vintage French pop. What emerges is a joyous, universal celebration of resilience, immigrant grit, and the fierce, complicated power of a mother’s love. </p>