The Teacher Who Promised the Sea, directed by Patricia Font, is in cinemas now.
This sad, schmaltzy but enlightening Spanish film is a combination of two staples of European cinema. On one side it’s another story about a new teacher attempting to broaden the horizons of village children whose parents preferred they remain illiterate rural labour (see also forthcoming French film Miss Violet). And on the other it’s about tracing a relative who ended up a victim of fascism in a mass grave.
As such, director Patricia Font’s debut has two timelines – a 2010 one where Ariadna (Laia Costa), a fictitious character, is trying to find the fate of her great-grandfather who was one of the many made to disappear without trace by the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. The other time frame is the eve of the conflict in the town of Bañuelos de Bureba in the northern province of Burgos. There, new teacher Antoni Benaiges (Enric Auquer), a real-life figure, has arrived after his appointment by the new republican administration. He has his work cut out for him. Not only do the parents see an education as optional, the local priest, who was the schoolmaster until the advent of the secular government, isn’t happy with his replacement being a left-wing atheist.
The film’s efforts to celebrate the progressive teacher’s short life becomes a campaign for secular sainthood. And not only is Señor Benaiges an inspiring and unconventional tutor to his class of pre-teens, he has taken in – for reasons that aren’t quite clear – young Carlos, the son of a socialist colleague off doing revolutionary things elsewhere. Back in 2010, Carlos is now wheelchair bound and suffering some form of dementia. His failing memory acts as something of a heavy-handed metaphor for Spain’s own amnesia about its history. Back in the scenes from the 1930s, Auquer plays Antoni as an unfailing idealist who encourages his kids to write their own school journals – you just know where they’ll end up – and promises them a trip to the seaside that none of them have ever visited. Hence the title.
It’s a film of fairly theatrical performances, the kids are all sweet cherubs and its depiction of pre-Franco Spanish village life feels more period tourist poster. But clearly the real Benaiges was quite a guy and anyone who prefers their radical-inspirational teacher movies with a Spanish history lesson attached will find plenty to like here.
Rating out of five: ★★★
