Philippe Falardeau

"While going through his own personal tragedy, Bachir Lazhar, a 55-year-old Algerian immigrant, is hired as a substitute in an elementary school after the abrupt death of a teacher. With great sensitivity and humour, Monsieur Lazhar depicts the encounter of two distant worlds: that of an immigrant and a group of shaken but endearing kids who, together, will transcend their losses."--Container.

They were known simply as "The Lost Boys." Orphaned by the brutal civil war in Sudan that began in 1983, these young victims traveled as many as a thousand miles on foot in search of safety. Fifteen years later, a humanitarian effort would bring 3,600 lost boys and girls to America.

"After leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, Joanna gets hired as an assistant to Margaret, the stoic and old-fashioned literary agent of J. D. Salinger. Fluctuating between poverty and glamour, she spends her days in a plush, wood-paneled office ... and her nights in a Brooklyn apartment with her socialist boyfriend. Joanna's main task is processing Salinger's voluminous fan mail, but as she reads the heart-wrenching letters...