A classic rags-to-riches story lies at the heart of “For Khadija,” a softball documentary about Moroccan-born rapper French Montana, who was born to a family that immigrated to the United States when he was a child. The film, which portrays its subject as a self-made striving entrepreneur and artist, derives its story from testimonies from friends, colleagues, family and French Montana himself. As in last year’s Tupac series “Dear Mama,” the title serves as a dedication to the rapper’s mother, who raised him and his siblings alone after his father left the family. In this case, the film isn’t about her so much as it is a hagiographic telling of Montana’s rise to fame.

Khadija and assorted relatives recall Montana’s early days in Casablanca, and how the family left for America in the mid-1990s when he was about 13. The recollections are interwoven with old family photos,...