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
predesigned plot points designed to provoke
tears. Though we might wish for a Mr. Holland's
Opus-type ending, 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.
GRADE: A-
