[Laza teacher] Monsieur Lazhar
Director: Philip Faradijo
Starring: Mohamed Flagg/Mary-Eva Bogard/Sidric Bohemany
Genre: Plot
Produced: Canadian Christal Films Distribution
Length: 94 minutes
text_西帕克
★★★☆
Representing Canada’s nominations for the best foreign language film for this year’s Oscar, [Laza Teacher] continues its Quebec film predecessors [Barbaric Invasion] and [Montreal Jesus] Pay attention to the philosophical core of life and death thinking. Similar to [Barbaric Invasion], this film also sets the protagonist as a teacher who teaches and educates people, but this time it is not waiting for death, but from a different perspective, telling a story of accepting death, and therefore he was taken in the United States. Set as R grade. But this does not mean that the film is a serious and dull work. On the contrary, the audience can clearly feel the sincerity and dedication of the creators. Most of the time, the characters are in a state of vigor, and there are some innocuous jokes to adjust the mood of the movie. For example, a narcissistic solo dance performed by Raza in the classroom is very impressive. Director Philippe Faradillo obviously knows that keeping a relaxed mood is more helpful to help the audience digest heavy themes.
Death is a perpetual element in this film. The former head teacher of Raza hanged himself in the classroom at the opening, and was discovered by the student Simon, which made the death prematurely entered the sight of the class. Afterwards, Mr. Raza, who volunteered to come as a substitute, was an Algerian political refugee whose wife and daughter were killed by terrorists. In such a class, everyone from teacher to student must learn to accept how to continue living under the shadow of death. The Chinese idiom "live towards death" is a summary of the plot of the whole film.
Unlike [Death Poetry Club], which portrays the image of a noble life mentor or [Between the Walls], campus movies that talk about racial issues, [Laza Teacher] also has the above two tendencies, but more of them are Emphasize the mutual improvement between teachers and students. The teacher Raza in the film is not good at his job (in fact, he is just a grocery store in Algeria, and the real teacher is his dead wife), and he often needs students to correct him in class. The students also had prejudices against his background in Algeria. But these problems are the basis for the life and death issues of the whole film. The impact of death is buried under the calm performance. Although everyone is evasive and unwilling to point out, everyone can perceive it. As almost the only adult in the film willing to investigate and discuss this incident, Raza also encountered great resistance. In the eyes of director Faradillo, the children in the film have already learned to face it objectively, but it is the parents and the school that really make the fuss. But this level of misunderstanding is also fatal. Excessive protection often brings unnecessary harm. It can be seen from many details that this problem does not only exist in the class in the film, but has social commonality. Canadian law prohibits any form of physical contact between teachers and students. Although it eliminates the possibility of sexual crimes against children, it also makes the gap between children and society worse. This is why just a hug from the former head teacher gave little Simon the real crux of the huge trauma.
This film is adapted from the stage play of Evelyn Chanalin. In the adaptation of Faradijo, the image of the students has been greatly strengthened. In the film, the two most important children's characters, Alice and Simon, are important nodes for the interaction between teachers and students in the film. Alice is calm and objective, and has deep thoughts about death. It is the rational pole that Lazar strongly promotes; while Simon is easy to explode, with great self-blame and fear of the teacher's death, which is the emotional part of the negative impact of death. pole. It is also the interaction of the two that enriches the story of the whole film. Although the other students don't have many roles, they all have their own insights and perceptions about death. Whether it is naive and accustomed to it, or the sensitive surprise effect, the purpose is to allow more audiences to participate in it. The warmth and help between the characters also adds real emotion to the whole film that can move the audience.
At the end of the film, the Canadian government admitted that Raza's wife and daughter were killed by terrorists and approved his permanent residency as a political refugee. This is actually a wonderful irony. Actual death does not constitute an effect, only recognized death is a truly effective death. The immediate death of the former teacher has never been recognized, and it continues to affect the cognition of living people. Regarding this suicide, no clear reason has been given, as if he was in a vacuum of death. Raza, who was trying to face the truth and resolve this level of death, had to be forced to leave his post quietly. Death is not terrible, but what really disturbs people is the unnecessary fear of it. This somewhat anti-climactic ending is obviously not the expectation of the audience who are accustomed to watching the spiritual chicken soup-style teacher-student film. From the death of the opening to the indifferent ending, the impact of the entire film has been diminishing. But the shadow of death still exists, and the problem has not really been solved, but it has been put on hold forever. However, for the audience and the characters in the film, a slight disturbance is enough. In fact, there is never a correct answer to the question of death. What is more important is your attitude towards it. From this perspective, [Raza teacher]'s detachment is even more commendable.
Climax: In the third minute, Simon found that the head teacher had committed suicide by hanging himself in class.
Wonderful line: The tree loves the chrysalis, hopes it grows, but doesn't want it to leave.
The crowd: parents and teachers
(originally appeared in "movies" review rooms)
View more about Monsieur Lazhar reviews
