Monsieur Lazhar (2011)

My 2nd movie review is also another movie on teachers which was among the nominations for this year's Oscars in the Foreign language film category. Directed by Philippe Falardeau, Monsieur Lazhar tells the story of an Algerian immigrant, Bachir Lazhar (Mohammed Fellag), who is hired as a replacement following the suicide of Martine, a popular, yet troubled, teacher.

Bachir Lazhar passes himself off as a teacher with 19 years of experience and a permanent resident of Canada. While we later get to know he is dealing with his own troubles after the death of his wife and daughter and is actually a refugee seeking political asylum. As someone dealing with loss, he tries to reach out to his students and wants them to express their thoughts. However, this doesn't go down really well with the school administration and the parents of the children. The performances of the child actors, specially Alice (Sophie Nelisse) and Simon (Emilien Neron) are something to take note of. Alice comes across as a really mature kid for her age when she tries to question Martine's suicide inside the classroom as a message of violence.

We observe a few understated moments of a friendship between Bachir and his colleague, Ms Claire Martel. Ironically, even though Bachir encourages his students to express themselves, his own reluctance to talk about his feelings and the cultural gap never helps in his relationships taking off. The movie plays out in a very delicate manner and it is those small things here and there that make it quite a revelation. The movie ends with his status being found out and he being asked to leave. Though unlike Martine, he meets his students a final time and narrates a beautiful story, saying goodbye without ever explicitly stating it.

Rating - 8/10