May 22. 2013
®l?* ^ßortlaxth (Dbseruer
CAREERS Special
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
Alberta
North Portland
s&L - t
Teaching a sixth grade class whose beloved teacher has recently hung herself in the classroom, and overcoming community and government biases ro o te d in hi*
immigration status are twin challenges for the teacher sensitively portrayed in ‘Monsieur Lazhar.
government biases rooted in his
W isdom of the Outsider
Immigrant status and biases collide in ‘Monsieur Lazhar’
by
D arleen O rtega
Those of us who live in relative ease
in North America and other parts of the
so-called "first world" rarely pause to
reflect on the silent suffering of the
refugees among us - the loved ones
they have lost or left behind, the trag­
edies that have shattered their hopes, the
displacement that robs them of identity.
Nowhere is that experience more sen­
sitively portrayed than in "Monsieur
Lazhar," which earned a host of film
awards in Canada, an Oscar nomination
for best foreign language film, and a spot
at number two on my list of the best films
of 2012.
Fittingly, the film tells us very little
about the experience of its title charac­
ter in his home country of Algeria. When
we first encounter him, he has appeared
in the office of a beleaguered middle
school principal to apply for the job of
teaching a sixth grade class whose be­
loved teacher has recently hung herself
in the classroom.
Lazhar is the only person to step
forward to teach the devastated class,
so the principal hastily accepts his report
that he taught for 19 years in Algeria.
continued
on page 17