Jean-Jacques Zilbermann

French writer-director Jean-Jacques Zilbermann drew humor from issues of sexuality, politics and race in such comedies as "Man is a Woman" (1998) and its 2009 sequel, "He is My Girl" (2009) before taking a well-regarded detour into drama with "To Life" (2014). Born in France in 1955, Zilbermann came to filmmaking through indirect routes: he was a projectionist and revival house owner, and worked on documentaries before making his directorial debut with the comedy "Tout le monde n'a pas eu la chance d'avoir des parents communistes" ("Not Everyone in the World is Lucky to Have Communist Parents," 1993). The comedy, about a young Communist woman who falls in love with members of the Red Army Choir, earned a Cesar award for star Josiane Balasko, but Zilbermann would remain away from the director's chair until 1998's "Man is a Woman," a comedy about a gay Orthodox Jewish musician who attempts to disguise his sexual orientation - and earn a sizable inheritance - by marrying a woman. The film also won a Cesar for its female lead, Elsa Zylberstein, but another six years would pass before Zilbermann directed his next feature, the comedy "Les fautes d'orthographe" ("Bad Spelling," 2004), about a young student trying to maneuver education and sex at a school overseen by his parents. In 2009, he helmed "He is My Girl" (2009), a broad comic sequel to "Man is a Woman" with Antoine de Caunes again playing the formerly closeted clarinetist, now out but still tangling with familial and romantic surprises, including a Middle Eastern transvestite (Mehdi Dehbi) who creates havoc in his life. Zilbermann shifted tone for his 2014 feature "To Life," a drama based on his mother's own experiences as a Holocaust survivor, and her reunion with friends and fellow survivors she thought to be long lost.