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Monsieur Lazhar
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lazhar tells the poignant story of a Montreal middle school class shaken by the death of their well-liked teacher. The movie, written and directed by Philippe Falardeau &ndas ...

Fellag

Algerinian actor Fellag (Mohamed Saïd Fellag) was born in 1950. He was named director of the theatre in the city of Béjaïa in 1993. A year later, he toured Algeria and Tunisia with the play Un bateau pour l'Australie. In 1995, a bomb exploded during a performance of Delirium in Tunis; Fellag then decided to move to Paris permanently. He produced his first show in French in 1997, Djurdjurassique Bled. The play was a huge hit in France and earned Fellag a major theatre critics' award for best new talent. In 2003, he drew inspiration from Brecht's Threepenny Opera for his play Opéra d'Casbah, directed by Jérôme Savary. The next year, Fellag produced and starred in a one-man show, Le dernier chameau, in collaboration with Patrick Sommier. Since then, European audiences have known him mainly for his one-man shows. As well as being an actor and director, Fellag is also the author of three short-story collections and two novels. Throughout his acting career, Fellag has also appeared in films, including Liberté, la nuit (1993) by Philippe Garrel, Le Gone de chaâba (1998) by Christophe Ruggia, Inch'allah dimanche (2001) by Yamina Benguigui, Fleur de sang (2002) by Myriam Mézières, Momo mambo (2007) by Laïla Marrakchi, L'ennemi intime (2007) by Florent Emilio Siri, Les Barons (2008) by Nabil Ben Yadir and Zarafa (2011) by Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lié.

Philippe Falardeau

Canadian director and screenwriter Philippe Falardeau was born in 1968. He studied politics before working in television as a director. His first feature The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge (2000) won him a Jutra Award as well as the Best First Film Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2006, Congorama was shown at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes and won several Jutra Awards including that for Best Director. It's Not Me, I Swear! (2008) won the Crystal Bear and the Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prize at Berlin. Bachir Lazhar (2011) is his fourth feature film.

WALLPAPER

The truths we tell our children: Monsieur Lazhar

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lazhar tells the poignant story of a Montreal middle school class shaken by the death of their well-liked teacher. The movie, written and directed by Philippe Falardeau – at his fourth feature film –, is an adaptation from the play of the same title by Evelyne de la Chenelière. After the premieres at the Toronto (Best Canadian Feature Film), Locarno (Prix du Public Award, Variety Piazza Grande Award) and Sundance (Official Selection) festivals, Monsieur Lazhar won the UPC Audience Award of the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012. Depicting the encounter between two distant worlds and the power of self-expression, Philippe Falardeau returns to the socially engaged filmmaking that marked his beginnings with The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge. Using great sensitivity and humor, the Canadian director follows a humble man who is ready to transcend his own loss in order to accompany children beyond the silence and taboo of death. "Monsieur Lazhar is a film about the complex organic entity that is a school," stated Falardeau. "What particularly interested me was that the mourning process is taking place within the context of an encounter between an immigrant and us. And so the school is going to work through this tragedy thanks to a 'free electron', a foreigner who is also going through his own mourning process. Therefore, I like to think the film is rather a response to pervading views on how to integrate immigrants. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't a 'how'. Let's live together with the immigrant, in everything we may experience: eat, drink, laugh, work, live… and overcome hardships together. That's what integration is; it isn't anything else. It's not a matter of establishing policies."

Alessandro Zoppo

Plot:

Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, is hired to replace a primary school teacher who has suffered a tragic death. As the class embarks on a long healing process, nobody at the school suspects Bachir's painful past, or that he fears being deported at any moment.

Genres: Drama, Comedy

Country: Canada (2011)

Release Date: 31-08-2012 (Italia) 13-04-2012 (USA)

Director: Philippe Falardeau

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