The Eleven Films About Refugees You Need To See
They're less depressing than the real thing.
Monsieur Lazhar (2011)
One of the best old-school-teacher-whips-awkward-kids-into-shape-but-they-love-it films of recent times, French Canadian director Philippe Falardeau’s bittersweet drama concerns a lonely Algerian man (played by French-born comedian Fellag) who mysteriously shows up on the doorstep of a Montreal school reeling from tragedy to offer his services. As he sets about inspiring the stricken (but also spoiled and unruly) kids, it’s revealed he’s an undocumented asylum seeker and has his own grief and suffering to work through.
Totally unrealistic (who’d hire a teacher with no CV and no papers?) and a bit predictable, it’s still well-executed, beautifully shot in wintry pastels and earthtones, and ultimately uplifting. It’s one tearjerking drama to rent with your mum that’ll remind both of you that “illegal” immigrants are people too.