SFF: Day 3 -Monsieur Lehzar

Day 3 (part 2):

Monsieur Lehzar * * * *

     There are two way to unnaturally die: by causes outside of one's control, or through events brought on by one's own actions. The Oscar nominated Monsieur Lehzar shows how one man copes with the effects of one, while absorbing the backlash and debris from the firestorm of the other.  Though slight in its scope, it tackles this most universal of experiences: death -bringing to mind other small-scale but profound masterworks like Starting Out in the Evening or The Visitor.

     The contradiction of children is that they can be simultaneously simple and complex creatures. Though nuance may escape them, pretense cannot fool them. But the discovery of the reality of death is a molding and unsettling time for any child. When a Canadian grade-school teacher commits suicide in her classroom, the students are rattled and confused. A school psychologist is called in, the classroom redone, and the inscrutable Bachir Lehzar is abruptly hired as a replacement. With instructions not to address what has transpired, Bachir begins the impossible task of administering healing without the allowance of a first aid kit. The students clearly need to unload their grief, guilt, and confusion, but it is not Bachir, but young Alice (a bright and sensitive young student) who becomes the catalyst for dialogue when she gives a speech that breaks through the silence, plastic reverence, and compulsory respect expected of the students by declaring her former teacher's suicide a selfish and violent act.

     Mohamed Fellag masterfully plays Lehzar, infusing his performance with panache but restraint as his character works to impart academic education and spiritual closure to his class -all while concealing his own personal grief over a pained past. The plot unfolds so organically: revealing events only as they occur, providing no perfunctory backstory, and referencing the past only as it becomes immediately relevant to the present. By allowing a natural evolution of events and character development, the film creates an anticipation (not unlike suspense) and ups the audience's involvement level through our inclusion on the field rather than relegation to the observational sideline. We are then rewarded with the most poetic (literally) and fulfilling resolution possible to the events of these lives we've become so vested in.

     Check back soon for the reviews from Day 4: Restoration, The Intouchables, and Alps!