Monsieur Lazhar

“No matter where you go... there you are”

Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) is an Algerian immigrant in Montréal who walks into an elementary school in a harsh winter and offers to replace a teacher who has died by suicide. Philippe Falardeau puts him in front of a grieving class that includes Simon (Émilien Néron) and Alice (Sophie Nélisse). Bachir teaches them with patience and some humor, and he keeps his own asylum claim and his own loss out of the room.