Review of Monsieur Lazhar (2011) by Eric A — 25 Apr 2012
This is an amazing testament of how humanity deals with grief in different ways. Yet when death visits a school and a favorite teacher is found dead, the effect is an explosive silence. Grief is dealt in so many ways.
Mohamed Fellag beautifully portrays an Algerian teacher that replaces the deceased teacher for the rest of the term. His intent is not to erase her memory and yet he allows the truth to exist in the classroom.
The children are superb and sincere. Sometimes it is more problematic for the adults to deal with the loss than the children. Monsieur Lazhar deals with his losses as he secretly seeks asylum as a refugee in Montreal; his silent grief for the death of his wife and children in Tunisia at the hands of political extremists .
In one scene he reads to the classroom an excerpt from Balzac and talks about a chrysalis, a cocoon, that shields ones feelings from the world. This is a movie that is about how to bridge that gap. A movie with subtle, quiet charm and soul.
This review of Monsieur Lazhar (2011) was written by Eric A on 25 Apr 2012.
Monsieur Lazhar has generally received very positive reviews.
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