After an elementary school teacher hangs herself in the classroom, a school is left shaken. The principal cannot find a substitute teacher to take over the assignment and the students are coping with their grief over the death of their popular teacher. Monsieur Lazhar, claiming to be a teacher from Algeria who is a permanent resident in Canada but cannot obtain a permanent job, arrives and is tasked with restoring some order to the class.
Initially, the transition is rough as Lazhar adopts a more formal approach that what the routine to which the students and his colleagues are accustomed. He needs to adjust his traditional French teaching style to the Canadian school systems as the students have to adapt to his high standards. Over the course of the school year, he begins to understand the class which is comprised of a variety of people, like a real classroom. One student is malnourished and sickly while another struggles to control his emotions. One is extremely proper and pedantic like her parents as another seeks to replace the emotional gap that her teacher had been filling in her life.
As he builds a relationship with the students, Lazhar’s life becomes more complicated. It turns out that he is a refugee who fled his home country after the violent deaths of his wife and children. He was never a teacher before moving to Canada and is utilizing his deceased wife’s personal reputation. Perhaps he initially taught based on his own experience in school but he gradually changes, inspired by his wife, the other teachers at the school and the needs of the students. Unfortunately, as he achieves some success in the classroom, his web of lies outside the school begins to fail.
Monhamed Fellag plays the protagonist, a man caught between two worlds. He still has feelings for his wife and wants to continue his legacy and he is also looking to start a new life in Canada. Helping the students address their emotions helps him move forward and the relationships he creates at school make up for what is lacking in an otherwise isolated existence in Montreal. The film observes events as a newcomer to Canada would see them; Lazhar is puzzled and sometimes frustrated as he endeavours to appreciate his new surroundings. A modest man, he at first hides his culture although he begins revealing himself more and more to those around him.
Lazhar may be a liar and a cheat but Fellag transforms him into a sympathetic character. Revelations occur gradually so although the audience suspects that something is amiss, they do not become biased towards in the character. In the end, the kind acts of the teacher and the progress that he makes counteract his initially unethical, perhaps mostly misinformed actions. The film asks the question of the purpose of schools: whether it is better to follow the specific technical details of the legislation and curriculum or focus on the overall education of the children. Lazhar makes progress by choosing a path in the middle of the spectrum although this eventually proves to be his undoing.
Philippe Falardeau places the cameras so they profile the lives which pass through the school. Sometimes an overhead shot establishes how the children interact with each other; occasionally a fixed shot in the hallway chronicles the events as different characters pass through. The film features different students throughout the school year as they battle individual difficulties. The child actors create compelling profiles – although the school and students are far calmer and relaxed relative to what seems typical these days – who take earnest steps forward dealing with death and continuing with their own learning. Change never transpires instantly and everyone does not move at the same pace but those who work at it are ultimately better off as a result. ***½