In Paris in the 1940s, Mora's bon vivant father Georges was a regular patron of the city's best restaurants. Supposedly, he might have died from overeating, if the arrival of the Nazis hadn't brought all that to a stop.

During the war, Georges worked for the French Resistance, while Mirka, the woman he would later marry, narrowly escaped being sent to Auschwitz.

Afterwards, the couple emigrated to Australia, where they raised three sons and became leading lights of Melbourne's bohemian crowd – Mirka as a painter, Georges as an art dealer and restaurateur.

Following in the artistic footsteps of his parents, Mora has worked as a painter as well as directing more than two dozen feature films, including Mad Dog Morgan and the recently restored Howling III –The Marsupials.

Based in Los Angeles, he's in town as a guest of the Melbourne International Film Festival to discuss Monsieur Mayonnaise, a new documentary on his family history, inspired by a graphic novel of the same title he's completing now.

Directed by Trevor Graham (Make Hummus Not War), Monsieur Mayonnaise the movie follows Mora on a quest to learn more about what became of his parents during the Nazi era.

For Mora, making the film was an "incredible life experience", allowing him to visit places he had previously only imagined – such as the house where Mirka and her family hid out – and meet survivors with first-hand stories to tell.

These included the 105-year-old former Resistance commander Georges Loinget, the cousin of Georges Mora's close comrade Marcel Marceau, who would go on to become a world-famous mime and Mora's godfather.

Another highlight for Mora was a meeting with the distinguished American psychiatrist Henri Parens, who as a child would have died at the hands of the Nazis if Georges hadn't helped smuggle him out of France.

"I think it brought home the reality of it for me," Mora says of his journey. "I could understand why my parents had never spoken about it much, growing up, because it's too much, it's too emotional."

Mora in the film describes himself as a storyteller first and foremost, and for all the gravity of its subject matter he views Monsieur Mayonnaise as "a great yarn".

We hear how Georges Mora and Marceau disguised themselves as nuns while smuggling children over the border between France and Switzerland – and how secret documents were smothered in mayonnaise so Nazi officials wouldn't touch them for fear of soiling their gloves.

Georges died in 1992, but Mirka is very much alive, and an exuberant presence in the film's Melbourne scenes. "She's always joking, laughing," Mora says. "But she thinks about it often."

According to Mora, many survivors of the Nazi era became "clinically depressed" and passed that legacy onto their children. His parents went the other way. "That's why they went full-on into art, food, culture, all the things that they thought were fantastic about life."

Monsieur Mayonnaise screens at MIFF on 31 July 31 and August 2. Philippe Mora and his brother William will discuss their family story at a Talking Pictures session on August 1.

The Age is a festival partner.