Monsieur Lazhar

Saw this last night as part of a Canadian Film Festival. It's a real gem that negotiates it's way around trauma and intimacy with tact while never preaching. It's a true humanist film in that it attempts to deal with the real issues of being a human being in a realistic and sympathetic way. I'm a fan of Ken Loach, but at times he can make his films too didactic. This movie never does that. The performances are universally excellent and it's open ended structure allows you to go away with multiple endings to think through. I wanted to know so much more about Mr Lazhar after the story ends. Similar to A Separation in many ways and also its equal.

Monsieur Lazhar is based on a play by Evelyne de la Cheneliere and it is a Canadian film in French with English subtitles. The film is about an immigrant from Algeria named Bachir Lazhar, who applies for a job at the local elementary school when there is a position open. In desperate need of a new teacher, the school hires him and Bachir starts shortly after. He is teaching a grade six class and what he was not prepared for is that several of the students are still in a state of grief because the previous teacher died and they were all quite attached to her and that is why the position was open and how he got the job. Bachir has a different teaching method than the class's previous teacher and a lot of what he says and does seems different to the students and a lot of what the curriculum and how the students behave and just life in Canada in general is somewhat strange to Bachir, having lived most of his life in Algeria. Putting those differences beside, Bachir tries to move on and be the best teacher that he can and soon he starts to warm up to the children in his class and he seems to get through to several of them as well and they start to really like him. However both at school in his classroom and even in his personal life, Bachir will have to deal with memories from the past, both of his own and his students and teach them how to grieve and deal with death as he has to face some of his own demons and personal problems as well. Over the years there have been many films made about inspirational teachers who win over classrooms of at once reluctant, or delinquent students only to have a big happy ending at the end. Some of those type of films have worked in the past and some have not. However, I find that it is a premise and plot device that has been used perhaps too often in films and is starting to get predictable and clichéd. I am very happy to say that Monsieur Lazhar avoided all that and went through a different formula with it's storytelling. Yes, it is about a teacher who has to win over his students, but there is so much more to the story as well. For one thing everything in this Montreal town in Quebec, is very foreign to Bachir, but he has a lot of self esteem and determination to set out and do his best for not only himself, but his students as well. He wants to leave behind his troubled past and start something new, which is hard at first, but he is giving his best effort to make it work. In dealing with the children he has a calm and very likable quality to him when he is teaching them. He generally also wants what is best for his students and for them to succeed not only in his class, but further along in life as well. What prevents this from coming together is the painful memories of the student's beloved first teacher who died just before Bachir, took the job. The school has counselors come in and the parents all try to do their best with the children and help them with the grief, guilt, sadness and other emotions that they are feeling, but unbeknownst to all of them, that the one who can truly relate to this incident and be the most help to the children at this time is Bachir, who is just getting to know the children and has never met the previous teacher, or really know anything about her. Putting the cultural and personal differences beside, he can reach these children in surprising and uplifting ways. This is a film just as much about death and how it not only affects children, but everyone else as well. How the film shows the different individuals trying to cope with it and how it doesn't always work, or perhaps takes more time for some than others, is an accurate picture and more lifelike and precise which I also appreciated about the film. The film plays everything quite quiet and low key, but the emotion we get out of the actors, and from the great script and direction is priceless. I felt extremely moved by the end of this film and felt that I got to know these characters and share their grief, heartaches and also loves and happiness. Bachir, himself is also a very interesting character with kind eyes and a warm smile and I really got to like him and his character throughout the movie. He is brilliantly played by Mohamed Fellag, who does a quiet and low key character, but with a lot of depth and feeling. It's a great performance. The performances from all the children are great in here as well. I liked this film because I think so many people will be able to relate and connect to it on several different levels, but we are also given a tremendous piece of entertainment to go along with it. I liked that this film took chances with what it talked about and showed us and ends up turning out to be quite relevant and relatable. The film will probably please most adult viewers and older teens may get a lot out of it as well. Even a day after seeing this film I still thought about it quite a lot and about the hold and power it held over me. At times happy, sad and overall an experience that I would certainly recommend. One of 2011's best films.

This film has what it takes to be one of the 5 entries in Oscar 2012 foreign film category. Unlike another french film 'un class', Monsieur Lazhar deals with the issue of moving on from a tragic event, to continue carrying out the role of teaching schoolchildren.

I am only half correct to say that this movie deals with the healing process, because while it seems to be that way, observers will realize that it is not quite possible to heal the wounds of all parties, due to bureaucracy, conflicts and cultural differences. And it is not possible to pretend that nothing has happened either. What I find fascinating about this film is that it chose not to be too ambitious in finding a good conclusion, but introduces all the elements of restraint and helplessness by the characters.

However, the movie offered surprises especially in the development of certain characters. Even though I disagreed with some of the support methods carried out (the movie sometimes forget these kids were below 12 years old) and I would have hoped to see more positive aftermath from the movie, the ending was very satisfying, when Lazhar, given the compromising situation, decides to give his classroom something that their previous teacher failed to do.

This absorbing film, set in Montreal, ties together two tragedies and by such a linkage shows our capacity for human understanding and emotional empathy. While that may sound excessively depressing to some readers, I found a semblance of hope in this film as the characters, both young and old, try to move on with their lives and cope as best they can, and while the trauma may be a permanent part of their psyches, their seeming resilience conveys a kind of worldly maturity and acceptance.

The film opens with two school children discovering a favorite, but troubled, teacher who has hung herself in her classroom while her students are at recess. Psychologists are brought in to help the students cope with the emotional intensity of such a tragedy, and then later a Mr. Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, presents himself to the principal as a suitable replacement for the suicide victim's class telling her how he's followed the school's trauma in the newspapers and he's available to help. Does he need the work (we find out his legal status is uncertain and he's in danger of being deported) or is some unconscious empathetic force driving him toward working with these students since he seems to understand their pain? The school authorities prefer to move on from the tragic event while Mr. Lazhar can sense after a number of months that some of his students are dwelling on their former teacher's act and her reasons for doing so; he encourages them to talk in class about their feelings and for this he is rebuked. We eventually discover the horrific tragedy surrounding his own family and why he's fled to Canada, and from this we can understand and appreciate his empathy for his students and his understanding of their emotional plight ("why did she do it in her own classroom during school?"). The film has many touching moments as this strange Algerian immigrant explains the "unexplainable" to his students and they in turn seem to provide him with an emotional outlet, and a purpose, to counter his own suffering.

Some reviewers have questioned the film's seeming lack of total emotional resolution, but life can be open-ended. Will these children completely heal (as much as they can) and will Mr. Lazhar's half-year encounter with these kindred souls give him the emotional basis for sustaining a meaningful life in a foreign environment? We don't really know, but some of the signs that the film depicts seem to be favorable. A very worthy film from Canada!

What happens when a class of 6th graders loses their beloved teacher to suicide? What happens when an Algerian immigrant applies to be their new teacher in a culture he is just beginning to understand? What is behind the teacher's stillness, his smile and his sad eyes? This film is a beautiful rendering of a stage play about love and loss, but also about hope. In this wonderfully-told story, the hope isn't trite, contrived or artificial. It's something you almost have to feel. It comes from the growing relationship between this strange teacher in a strange land, and his student children, so in need of his help.

The movie's cast is rich with great acting, by the kids of course, but here, if anything, they're outshone by Algerian actor Mohamed Fellag, whose face tells 1000 stories about where he has been and, perhaps, where he hopes to go.

The only things not perfect are the characters, for this writer and director have been too careful to give them - even the "best" of the children - no flaws. They are all more good than bad, but also complex in their own way, suffering the loss of one teacher and the growing pains of learning to learn from another.

This film gets my vote for Best Foreign Language Film, even over the excellent A Separation. Don't miss it!