Monsieur Lazhar (movie review)

Monsieur Lazhar (drama) (2011) (1 hr 34 mins)

The hardest thing for a film to do is to make the viewer care about its characters. This tender and moving Canadian French-language film directed and written by Philippe Falardeau makes you feel deeply for all of the characters.

At a Montreal school, Simon and his friend Alice go to collect the class supply of milk and find that their teacher, Martine, has hung herself from the classroom ceiling. The school is assigned a psychologist to help children and staff cope with their grief while the headteacher sets about the task of finding a new teacher. An Algerian immigrant, Bashir Lazhar, turns up the school and offers to do the job. Unable to find anyone else at short notice, the headteacher hires him.

What then unfolds is a fascinating story of how the new teacher gradually helps his class of 11 year-olds to work through their grief at the loss of a much-loved teacher. There is no magical transformation. At first, as Bashir struggles to get to know his class, to adjust to cultural differences and to the way things are done at the school, it seems he is doing very little at all. But slowly it becomes evident that he is allowing the children space – space to talk, to argue, to discuss. He takes what they say seriously and treats them as equals.

Alice uses an exercise about the pupils’ feelings about school to express her grief at Martine’s death. Bashir asks the headteacher if he can distribute her composition among the school to help people talk more freely about their feelings but he is refused. It is deemed too risky. He gets the caretaker to show him the possessions left in Martine’s desk, including a book of fables which he uses in class to encourage discussion.

As the process of healing in the school begins, we learn that there is a healing process going on for Bashir too. It transpires that he has applied for political asylum after escaping from Algeria. His wife and children were killed when their apartment building burnt down in an arson attack. In a moving scene, he collects a parcel of his family’s belongings – all he has left of his old life.

As Bashir and his class undertake this journey of healing together, a real warmth develops between teacher and pupils, and the broken friendship between Simon and Alice is restored. An interesting friendship also begins to develop between Bashir and Claire, one of the other teachers who knew Martine well. When she invites him round to dinner, they are both awkwardly trying to discern the other’s feelings. For Bashir it is too early to begin a new relationship but too painful to explain why.

The film is based on a play by Evelyne de la Cheneliere and has been beautifully adapted by Falardeau. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and won numerous film awards around the world. The acting is outstanding, particularly from the children and from Mohamed Fellag in the lead role. Above all, it is a film that will move you deeply.

Rating: 10/10