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Monsieur Lazhar

Monsieur Lazhar

Comedy, Drama

At a Montréal public grade school, an Algerian immigrant is hired to replace a popular teacher who committed suicide in her classroom. While helping his students deal with their grief, his own recent loss is revealed.


The critical consensus

An unexpected charmer.

****(*)Allan Hunter, The List, 17/04/2012

Monsieur Lazhar was nominated for this year’s best foreign language Oscar. It lost to Iran’s A Separation but, like that film, it is an unsentimental parable about connection – and a lesson in how to build an affecting movie without resorting to familiar tropes.

****(*)Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 29/04/2012

The result is a shrewd look at classroom etiquette and an achingly sad study of grief-stricken solitude, built on ace performances by Fellag and the kids-especially 11-year-old scene stealer Sophie Nélisse.

****(*)Simon Kinnear, Total Film, 01/05/2012

While there’s something commendable about the way this 2012 French-Canadian Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language film strives to subvert the usual clichés of the dreaded inspirational teacher genre with subtle acting (the young kids are particularly good) and a lack of sentimentality, it does hinge on a fallacious and naïve plot contrivance.

**(*)(*)(*)Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 03/05/2012

Only the most obstreperous delinquent could fail to be charmed by Monsieur Lazhar.

****(*)Xan Brooks, The Guardian, 03/05/2012

This is a sensitive, finely judged drama shot through with sincerity, but it never quite catches fire.

***(*)(*)Robbie Collin, The Telegraph, 03/05/2012

Philippe Falardeau's classroom drama is an A-grade heartbreaker.

****(*)Alison Rowat, The Herald, 03/05/2012

Falardeau, despite handling weighty questions, moves the film along with an unfussy grace and a bright sense of location.

****(*)Anthony Quinn, The Independent, 04/05/2012

A gently orchestrated message of survival steeped in the honesty and innocence of a school classroom.

****(*)Andrew Latimer, TV Bomb, 04/05/2012

Oscar-nominated in this year's Best Foreign Language category, it's one of few movies to be set in a school that don't keep trying to teach us something.

Nicholas Barber, The Independent, 06/05/2012

The end sends you out of the cinema in a positive frame of mind, but it's neither triumphalist nor unrealistic. Some teachers will learn from it. All teachers will find it a reaffirmation of their vocation.

Philip French, The Observer, 06/05/2012

An Oscar nominee at this year's Academy Awards and for good reason, Falardeau's film is moving, smart and sensitive. Terrific stuff, in short.

****(*)Patrick Peters, Empire Online, 01/05/2012

A class act. Touching but never sentimental, Lazhar is a sensitive, hopeful treaty on grief and innocence lost.

****(*)Josh Winning, Little White Lies, 03/05/2012

Where and when?

Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday May 4, 2012, until Thursday May 17, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com

Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow from Friday May 4, 2012, until Thursday May 10, 2012. More info: http://www.glasgowfilm.org/theatre/

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