''This Teacher'' is a 2018 film directed by

Mark Jackson Mark A. Jackson (born April 1, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who was a point guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the St. John's Red Storm and was selected by the New ...

and distributed by Breaking Glass Pictures. The film premiered at the 2018

LA Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episodi ...

, where it won the U.S. Fiction Award. It also was the closing night film of the 2019

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival is held in Los Angeles in late February and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization. The organization ...

Plot

A French Muslim woman (

Hafsia Herzi Hafsia Herzi (born 25 January 1987) is a French actress, screenwriter, and director. She is best known for her debut role in the award-winning Franco-Tunisian feature '' The Secret of the Grain'' for which she won the award for most promising actr ...

) travels to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

from the rough neighborhoods outside of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to visit her childhood best friend Zahra ( Sarah Kazemy). Hafsia finds that Zahra was not the girl she knew growing up in Paris. She now goes by Sarah and has completely assimilated into Western culture. Sarah explains to her much older boyfriend ( Gabe Fazio) that Hafsia stinks and she doesn't want her to stay there anymore, which Hafsia overhears. Hafsia steals Sarah's credit card and identity, then disappears to a remote cabin upstate. Deep in the woods and alone for the first time in her life, she experiences a divine revelation. Sarah arrives and tries to convince Hafsia to return with her, which she refuses. An animal breaks into Hafsia's cabin and steals all the food. Initially a couple, teacher Rose ( Lucy Walters) and policeman Darren (Kevin Kane), help her. But Hafsia begins to see intolerance and suspicion which reflects back to an Islamophobic America. This third act explores themes such as the inherent racism and naivety that comes along with being a white American, that most white Americans don't even know they have or the rampant Islamophobia that has overtaken most of the world, and the difficulties of being a Muslim, particularly a Muslim woman, in a post-911 world. Lorry Kikta. January 27, 2019
This Teacher

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews from critics, the

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website

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reported that of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 8917930 2018 films 2010s English-language films American drama films 2010s American films