Once We Grow Up

This delightful romantic comedy tells the story of a 30-year-old journalist, Simon, who is struggling to build a family and trying to understand how his Algerian Jewish roots affect his place in contemporary, multicultural Paris. As the film begins, Simon is torn between his job at Tobacco Monthly and his long-distance relationship with his girlfriend Christine. He also has a distant relationship with his father Isaac, whom he sees all the time. When he is not worrying about whether he and Christine will have a child, he is rescuing his grandmother from danger. She has taken to wandering the Paris streets, convinced she is back in Algeria. When Simon meets his pregnant neighbor Claire, a fellow North African Jew who is neglected by her Ashkenazi (European-Jewish) husband, his life takes an unexpected turn. Matthieu Demy (JEANNE ET LE GARÇON FORMIDABLE) plays the lead role beautifully, with humor and a charm that is more than skin deep. Amira Casars, who won a French Oscar for her supporting role in WOULD I LIE TO YOU? (2000 SFJFF), is enchanting as Claire. The fine ensemble cast includes Marie Payen as Simon’s lesbian friend who experiments (unsuccessfully) with men, Julien Boisselier as a straight white guy who wants (also haplessly) to be Senegalese, and Eric Bonicatto as a frustrated boxer. ONCE WE GROW UP is the first feature film from a talented young director with a soft touch.

Renaud Cohen, 36 years old, made nine short features and documentaries before writing and directing ONCE WE GROW UP, his first feature film. Cohen earned a masters degree in Chinese language and civilization in 1988 and, in 1992, he graduated from France's most prestigious film school, the FEMIS, with a degree in film directing. From 1996-1999, he directed three documentaries about life in contemporary China, including LES PETITS PAINS DU PEUPLE (THE PEOPLE'S CAKE, 1999), which was broadcast on the French-German television channel ARTE. Cohen has won several awards, including a special jury prize at the Edinburg Film Festival for his film REFLECTIONS OF A BOY. ONCE WE GROW UP opened at more than a dozen theatres in the Paris metropolitan area and received excellent reviews from Le Monde and Cahiers du Cinema.