Monsieur Lazhar (2011)

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This is the second nominee for Best Foreign Language film last year that I have seen in the last couple of weeks, and it is also a winner (ok, not of the award, but it is a very good film).  It is from French Canada, which has a rich film tradition, and is set in Montreal.  Monsieur Lazhar is a refugee from Algeria.  The exact circumstances of his departure from Algeria are not clear—why he left first even though his wife was the one who was primarily threatened, why he left without his children, what exactly the time frame was between his departure and the firebombing of their house.  But the end story is that he is in Canada, and they are dead.  He ran a restaurant in Algeria and his wife was a school teacher—so when he hears of a local teacher who has hung herself in her classroom, he goes to the school and presents himself as a teacher ready to take over the traumatized class of 6^th graders.  The classroom is the same one that the teacher hung herself, no less.  They have put a coat of paint and stripped all her things off the walls and nothing else.  Monsieur Lazhar struggles at first, using techniques for teaching that we used when he was a boy, but he quickly adjusts, peering in on another classroom when the school psychologist spends her hour with his class, ostensibly helping them work through the trauma.

The really great take home message in this movie is that getting over trauma is not about tip toeing on egg shells around the subject.  The school has put up a lot of barriers so that no one can actually say anything sensitive and they most certainly cannot touch the children.  The parents are just wishing it would all go away, and Monsieur Lazhar is the only one who seems genuinely concerned about the kids themselves, especially the boy who found her.  He feels that the teacher did it to him in particular, knowing that he would be the one who arrived at the classroom early on the day she hung herself, but no one want s to take that on.  He has been a troubled boy in the past, and so they do not extend themselves to help him.  The film deals with some delicate topics—what do schools owe children related to trauma that takes place in their midst?  What do adults owe children regarding dealing with things they would prefer not to?  This is a lovely, quiet film that has deep rooted themes.