M, 105 minutes

4 Stars

Review by © Jane Freebury

The centrepiece of this fine film set rural Spain in the 1930s is a journal produced by children who had never laid eyes on the sea. Their teacher had promised them a trip to the coast in the summer, but his promise could not be kept in that time of political turbulence. It was a trip to the coast on offer, and so much more in this story of an inspiring teacher who tried to show his pupils the best way forward.

Making this solemn film was a delicate project for all involved, from the start. Including the art department tasked with reconstructing the mass gravesite discovered in Burgos province in 2010 that held the bodies of opponents of the fascist regime that wrested power during civil war. More than 100,000 supporters of the Republic went missing in Spain, executed and buried in unmarked graves during the coup d’etat of 1936-39 that saw Franco rise to power.

Our way into this turbulent past is Ariadna (Laia Costa), a troubled young woman, who wants to grant her grandfather, Carlos, his dying wish. The body of his father, (and Ariadna’s great grandfather), Bernardo Ramirez, who disappeared during the military coup has never been found. As the ailing man passes his final days slumped in a wheelchair, gazing out to sea, his granddaughter sets off for Burgos province, to visit the unmarked mass grave, recently discovered. It may be her great grandfather’s final resting place.

A solemn mood for a delicate project based on fact

After driving to the gravesite, Ariadna is shown a map of Spain by a forensic anthropologist. Graves are located across the entire country. Executions were carried out everywhere.

When the search for the body of her great grandfather fails to find any trace, she becomes interested in the teacher at his village school, an unorthodox and charismatic Antonio Benaiges (a very engaging performance by Enric Auquer), who introduced progressive teaching methods based on the Freinet pedagogy that emphasised giving pupils the opportunity to express themselves.

The moment that Antonio arrived in the village of Banuelos de Bureba he shook things up. He bought a printing press, banished rote learning and dispensed with the large crucifix that clung grimly to the classroom wall. The class of children, aged between six and 12, basked in his nurturing approach. The daughter of the mayor, Josefina (Alba Hermoso), shows a talent for drawing. Emilio (Nicolas Calvo), whose illiterate father thinks his son is wasting his time at school, becomes the best reader in class. The boy Carlos (Gael Aparicio) whose father is a political prisoner, settles down.

At least in the closing scenes when Ariadna returns from her quest, elderly Carlos (Felipe Garcia Velez) can see a photo of himself in class, alongside his teacher.

It’s a shocking moment when the military arrive, making a bonfire of what they deemed subversive books, and dealing with that ‘communist teacher’ Antonio, after he had been thoroughly beaten and tortured. No doubt, elements in the community who were suspicious of outsiders and their revolutionary ideas formed a fatal partnership with the Catholic church to be rid of the meddlesome left-winger in their midst.

A gentle, roguish character who lifts the film with his promise for a future of expansive horizons

The teacher had arrived from Tarragona, south of the city of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast. The isolated village in the north of central Spain where he was assigned to teach was a long way from the sea, and a long way from progressive thinking that circulates in the metropolis.

The screenplay for The Teacher Who Promised the Sea is based on the novel of the same name by Catalan journalist and broadcaster Francesc Escribano, and adapted for screen by Albert Val.

This is a low key, impressively restrained piece from director Patricia Font, with its beautiful, subtle cinematography by David Valldeperez, and intense, understated performances from the cast. The exuberant Antonio is of course the exception to the solemn mood of the piece, as one of those special teachers who everyone remembers, capturing their imagination and setting it free. Like the inspiring teacher in the recent film from Mexico, Radical.

While Costa offers an impressively subtle portrayal of a contemporary, troubled young woman on a lonely quest, with issues that are never really specified, it is Auquer whose gentle, roguish character lifts the film with an expansive promise for the future in a trip to the sea.

First published in the Canberra Times on 27 July 2024.  Jane’s reviews are also published at Rotten Tomatoes