Lessons in Loss: Gender and Grief in Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar

Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar (2011) opens with a quintessentially Québécois scene: children, bundled against the cold morning, loitering and teasing each other in a snowy Montreal schoolyard. Fifth-grader Simon (Émilien Néron) rushes from the bustling winter scene into the empty school to collect milk for his class. As he arrives at the doorway of the classroom, […]