Monsieur Lazhar

A truly touching film dealing with grief, loss and reconciliation, French-Canadian film, Monsieur Lazhar, is one that hits the heart strings with all the right notes.


Set in Montreal, the teacher of a class of young students has committed suicide. After hearing about the tragedy that has befallen the class, Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag), an Algerian immigrant, decides to help the school by offering to be the class’s substitute teacher and the offer is readily accepted. As the class struggles to heal their emotional wounds, Lazhar’s own painful past becomes apparent and the students end up inadvertently helping Lazhar through his pain as much as he helps them through theirs. Adapted from the award winning play by Evelyne de la Cheneliere, it’s a touching story that is handled with great skill by director Philippe Falardeau who sews together moments of insight, empathy and emotion with great sensitivity.


The cinematography by Ronald Plante is simple but beautiful. The shots are unobtrusive and compliment the highly emotional content and without trying anything flashy that would detract from the narrative. There is one particular scene at the start where the classroom at the school is being painted. It’s such a simple scene but it holds a lot of beauty just through the cinematography balanced with the soft music of the underscore.

Lazhar’s relationship with these kids is truly heart-warming. The teachers, especially Lazhar, are forced to tiptoe around the grief that has struck the students as the school decides that it is best not to directly approach the subject of suicide but skirt around it and due to the stern rules about contact with students. Lazhar manages to really help the kids through this hard time in their lives and Fellag plays the role of the teacher with the perfect mixture of meekness and power. 

The bereaved students manage to retain their childish innocence as well offering great emotional depth to their characters. Sophie Nélisse as Alice and Émilien Néron as Simon, create some really beautiful and honest scenes and moments of raw emotion that are very moving, so much so that they steal the show from the adults. All the children show great maturity in the approach to their roles that I found similar to the performances of the children in Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy (2010) another French film that relies heavily on the young actors. 

One thing that does let the film down is the soundtrack. It seemed to scream, “I am a French film and I am quirky and cute!” More often than not it worked against the film because the choice of underscore didn’t always fit the film, making it distracting at times. Also there were a few loose ends and unanswered questions mainly to do with Lazhar and his background but overall Monsieur Lazhar is a beautiful film.

 

If you are a fan of French cinema then this is one not to miss.