Monsieur Lazhar

Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant living in Montreal, applies for a teaching position at an elementary school after reading that a sixth-grade teacher took her own life in her classroom. Hired as her replacement, he takes charge of a group of children still shaken by the death, while the school administration hopes a quick hire will restore routine. His old-fashioned methods, including a dictation drawn from Balzac, initially baffle the pupils, and two students in particular, Alice and Simon, carry their own complicated feelings about what happened. Lazhar gradually earns the trust of the class and helps them move forward, but he keeps his own history to himself: his past in Algeria and the personal tragedy he suffered there, as well as his precarious legal situation in Quebec.

Philippe Falardeau wrote and directed the film, which came first in the chronological list of his feature directing credits and was followed by The Good Lie, Chuck, My Salinger Year and Lovely Day. Mohamed Fellag plays Lazhar, with Sophie Nélisse as Alice and Émilien Néron as Simon among a credited cast of 26. Kim McCraw and Luc Déry produced.

Released in 2011, the film runs 94 minutes and mixes comedy with drama. It took about 7 million USD at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds 7.5 out of 10 from roughly 22,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2 out of 10 from 371 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 8.2 out of 10 from 114 reviews, higher than the audience scores.