Once in a Liftime

Several films have pondered the impact of the Holocaust on today’s adolescents, but few have been as realistically made and moving as Once in a Lifetime. This French fiction film is based on the true story of a difficult high school class in the poor Paris suburb of Créteil and its determined teacher, Madame Guégen (astutely played by Ariane Ascaride, Army of Crime, SFJFF 2010). In a class that is every teacher’s nightmare, Madame Guégen challenges her students, many of them Muslims, to enter France’s annual contest about World War II and the Shoah. Overcoming the students’ own fear of failure, her principal’s wish to have a more advanced class compete and her students’ initial lack of interest, Madame Guégen teaches her class about cooperation, racism and resilience. Most importantly, she engages them in learning, curiosity, creativity and empathy. Visits to the Memorial of the Shoah in Paris and the moving appearance of a Holocaust survivor who tells his story to the students help the students curb their anti-Semitism under the guidance of the dedicated professor. Twenty-one-year-old Ahmed Dramé, nominated for a 2015 César as best new actor, plays a student and co-wrote the script with director Marie-Castille Mention Schaar. —Sara L. Rubin