Rated PG-13 (Mature Thematic Material, A Disturbing Image and Brief Language)
Directed by Philippe Falardeau
Starring Fellag, Sophie Nelisse, Emilien Neron, Danielle Proulx, Brigitte Poupart, Louis Champagne, and Jules Philip
Dealing with death is hard. It's even harder for a child to deal with death. Monsieur Lazhar, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film this year but lost to A Separation, is an intelligently written drama about the relationship between an elementary school teacher and his 4th grade class. He understands death and after a horrible tragedy at the school, so do the kids. Together they form a connection. I don't entirely know if this stands out more than other teacher/student relationship movies like Dead Poets Society and Stand and Deliver, but it is very moving and powerfully acted, particularly from the young cast. The most important teachers, in my opinion, are the elementary school ones. This is the time when kids, who have only recently been born, are taught about the world. From 1st-5th grade I learned about the misfortunes of the world and the one thing they result in: death. Monsieur Lazhar is that type of movie.
The movie's opening is bone-chilling. The school is in Montreal. On a snowy day a bunch of students have recess outside. Simon (Emilien Neron), the troublemaker of his class, goes inside to get milk cartons for after recess. He walks to his classroom door and sees his teacher hanging by her neck inside. The teachers find out and take the children back outside but one other student, Alice (Sophie Nelisse), wanders to the class and sees her teacher too. WOW. Talk about an intense opening. Bashir Lazhar (Fellag, full name: Mohamed Said Fellag), an Algerian immigrant, reads about the suicide in the newspaper and comes to the school asking for the job. The principal, Madame Vaillancourt (Danielle Proulx), thinks it's a bit too fast for him to take over but after all, the kids still need a teacher. Also, Bashir seems like a really friendly guy. What she doesn't know is that Bashir has had a really rough life (which I won't say). His past, however, will help him connect with his students, particularly Simon and Alice.
Monsieur Lazhar questions the difference between being a teacher and being a person. The principal assumes the children are traumatized and asks a psychologist to come to the class and speak with them. That's not enough for Bazhar. It's HIM that needs to talk to them and explain the reality of death. The staff hear about how Bashir is talking to the kids about their deceased teacher and are appalled by it. They believe it's not his job. He has to make them forget about it, but how can they? How can they forget about a teacher they loved seeing every day? Director Philippe Falardeau, however, isn't trying to make a serious statement on the education system. He's simply presenting us with a lovely story about a teacher and his class trying to come to terms with a horrible event. Fellag, who's actually a comedian in real life, gives a soft, oftentimes tragic performance as Bashir, but it's the performances of Nelisse and Neron that really stood out for me. How can kids this young get handed a script this sad but pull it off? There's a scene with Neron, in particular, that is sure to make people reach for tissues.
Monsieur Lazhar has some painful moments, but they're never over-the-top. There's something gentle about the feel of it all. This works because Bachir is like a gentle angel coming to cheer up a group of children.
