Based on his stage show of the same name, it follows Guillaume as a boy as he develops his own identity and his relationship with his mother.

Taken from his successful 2008 one-man stage show at the Théâtre de l’Ouest Parisien,[3] Gallienne adapted the script for film with the help of Claude Mathieu [fr] and her husband, Nikolas Vassiliev.

[4] In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, Gallienne explained how the concept came to him during therapy session, expressing how "it became the connecting link for all the separate anecdotes in the puzzle of my life; as if all the years of confusion suddenly made sense.

[6] The play has been translated into German by Karolina Fell, published by Rowohlt Verlag and will be presented in a first foreign language production as "Maman und ich" at the Theater O-TonArt in Berlin on 30 September 2016.

[9] Stephen Dalton writing for The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "sweet and sunny and shamelessly sentimental in places", with "shades of Pedro Almodovar".

[10] Variety critic, Peter Debruge called it a "self-deprecating crowdpleaser", and considered Galliene a "curly-haired version of American funnyman Tony Hale".

For Les Fiches du cinéma [fr], Cyrille Latour described it as a "remarkable mix of funny, tenderness and cruelty".

[12] Comparisons were drawn between Galliene's role as his mother and Dustin Hoffman's performance in the 1982 film Tootsie.

[14] Writing for the Slate, Charlotte Pudlowski thought the film was socially relevant at a time when the issue of same-sex marriage in France was being discussed, stating that "there was something very unique to the film's history about a boy who thinks he is a girl, in a family who believes he is gay and who eventually marries a young woman".

She also noted that the film, while similarly themed, was not as sexually explicit as 2013 Palme d'Or winner, Blue Is the Warmest Colour.

[16] It became the fifth best cinematic opening of 2013 in France, debuting at the top of the French box office and selling 69,342 tickets across 406 screens in its first week.