Monsieur Lazhar (2011) Reviews

• A film that explores loss, exile, and the truths we tell our children.

  howard.schumann2012-01-29

  Our society has often been called "death-denying," one in which grief is suppressed and the inevitability of death ignored. Author John Fowles said, "Death's rather like a certain kind of lecturer. You don't really hear what is being said until you're in the first row." The children at a primary school in Montreal are definitely in the first row in Philippe Falardeau's Monsieur Lazhar, the story of a sixth grade class in Canada attempting to deal with the emotional trauma resulting from the sudden and shocking loss of their teacher. Nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the 2012 Oscars, Monsieur Lazhar is an adaptation of Évelyne de la Chenelière's stage play, and is produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw, the same team that gave us the Oscar-nominated Incendies. According to the jury at the Toronto Film Festival, it is "a film that explores loss, exile, and the truths we tell our children." Opening in a schoolyard in the middle of a snowy winter, Grade 6 pupils, Simon (Émilien Néron), and his friend, Alice (Sophie Nélisse), have run off to deliver milk cartons only to discover their teacher Martine Lachance has committed suicide, a discovery that leaves both children with profound emotional scars that will take a long time to heal. Because Simon had been a problem for his teacher, he blames himself for her death and takes out his guilt feelings by being overly aggressive towards other children. Unfortunately, the school can only think in terms of "professional" counseling, and a psychologist is hired to assist the distressed pupils, but she is ineffective in reaching them. The classroom is redecorated and painted, yet the students are not moved to another room and the unseen presence of Martine looms large. Exhausted by the ordeal, the school principal, Madame Vaillancourt (Danielle Proulx), out of desperation, hires Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag), an Algerian refugee without papers or references, believing his story that he is a landed immigrant and has taught school for nineteen years, though in fact he has been the manager of a restaurant. Though getting off to a shaky start in class, dictating Balzac to the bewildered children, Bachir soon begins to handle the children's emotions with greater awareness and sensitivity. Operating under the severe restrictions of today's over-protective culture, he is prohibited from hugging a crying child or even touching them for that matter, a prohibition that often works to the detriment of the child as well as to what the school is trying to accomplish. Though Bachir actually had not told the truth about his teaching qualifications in order to get the job, his ability to relate to the student's trauma because of his own experience allows him to overcome his lack of training and meet the students on an equal playing field. Winner of the award for Best Canadian feature film at the Toronto Film Festival, Monsieur Lazhar is a low-key, low-budget, and often humorous film that observes rather than preaches, and, though the script offers many opportunities, avoids clichés and cloying sentimentality. Marked by outstanding performances by Fellag, Proulx, and especially the children who are natural and unaffected, the characters are allowed to explore their own feelings without contrivance or manipulation. When the emotional moments come, they are all the more powerful because they arise naturally and not out of pre-designed plot points designed to provoke tears. Though we might wish for an ending akin to Mr. Holland's Opus, the honesty of the film precludes it. While children's hurt in this kind of situation may never be completely forgotten, with compassion, they may be able to develop a new awareness of the preciousness of life and the beauty of giving and receiving love. Monsieur Lazhar has pointed the way.

• A little masterpiece

  sugith-12012-04-15

  This film won Canada's Genie for best film and deserved it. The story is simple and profound, contemporary and timeless at the same time. After the suicide of a grade school class teacher, a new teacher appears ready to take over the class. An Algerian immigrant, Monsieur Lazhar brings such a deep humanity to his job, that the traumatized kids are able to come to terms in some ways with what has happened. What they don't realize is how much their new teacher knows of their pain first hand. Fellag's performance as the title character is note perfect and gigantic. The children are astonishing and the final scene, the final moment will crush even the most stoic viewer's resolve not to weep.

• Heart-Warming and Heart-Wrenching

  FilmPulse2012-05-08

  Monsieur Lazhar is another in a long line of inspirational teacher films set to show viewers that teachers are an unending source of inspiration and worldly advice. I have grown tired of this plot line and subsequent variations, but Monsieur Lazhar is a shining example of the inspirational teacher film and the poignancy of said films if executed correctly, with honesty and maturity. Philippe Falardeau's (It's Not Me, I Swear and Congorama) film adaption of Evelyne de la Chenelière's play (she also plays Alice's mother), Monsieur Lazhar was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category as the official Canadian submission. The film tells the story of Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag), an Algerian immigrant hired at Montreal public grade school after the original teacher was found hanging from the ceiling of her classroom. The teacher, Martine Lachance, was found by one of her students, Simon (Émilien Néron) while he was delivering milk to the classroom as he always does every Thursday. The film continues to show the effects of death and the ways that the children try to deal with the loss, but also their grief, which at times seem to be stifled by the school. Monsieur Lazhar, at the same time, is dealing with a loss of his own; having come to Canada seeking asylum and waiting for his wife and children to join him, only to have his family killed the night before they were supposed to leave Algeria. The film cuts between Bachir in the classroom (having the children do a dictation of Balzac, rearranging their desks, etc.) and Bachir outside of the classroom (picking up his wife's belongings, preparing for a hearing, etc.). No one knows of his painful past, nor of his refugee status; the school is under the impression that he is a permanent resident of Canada. Bachir notices, because of his current dealing with grief, that the children are trying to communicate or express their feelings about the death of their teacher. The school has brought on a psychologist to help the children come to grips with their loss. Bachir realizes that it is merely a stop-gap, but is told "not to make waves". He continues to witness things that lead him to believe that the children want to talk about their teacher, Martine and also of the trouble they are having trying to understand something that may well be beyond their comprehension. Monsieur Lazhar is a heart-warming, but at the same time, heart-wrenching story of how people (whether it be children or adults) trying to come to terms with the loss of a family member (albeit for the children it was a teacher, but school, at that young age, can be something like a second home). Bachir, himself, uses a very personal and poignant short story, that he wrote himself and reads to his class, in an effort to say goodbye - something that Martine Lachance never did. The film features some great performances from Mohamed Fellag as Monsieur Lazhar, Émilien Néron as Simon - a guilt-ridden child that feels responsible for his teacher's suicide - and Sophie Nélisse as Alice, the surprisingly mature young girl that has the courage to speak about the effects of Martine's decisions. Kevin FilmPulse.net

• A perfect movie about loss and hope

  richard-19672012-04-06

  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!

• Monsieur Lazhar

  cultfilmfan2012-02-16

  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.