The Teacher Who Promised the Sea

2023 [SPANISH]

Biography / Drama

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 100% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 100%
IMDb Rating 7.4/10 10 2230 2.2K

based on novel or book professor biography teacher school teacher schoolteacher

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Plot summary

Ariadna discovers that her grandfather has been searching for the remains of his father, who disappeared during the Civil War. Determined to help him, she travels to Burgos, where a mass grave is being excavated, and where he could be buried. During her stay there, she will learn the story of Antoni Benaiges, a young teacher from Tarragona who was her grandfather's teacher before the war. Through an innovative pedagogical method, Antoni inspired his students and made them a promise: to take them to see the sea.

Director

Patricia Font Photo
Patricia Font

Top cast

Laia Costa Photo
Laia Costa as Ariadna
Ramón Agirre Photo
Ramón Agirre as Emilio adulto
Milo Taboada Photo
Milo Taboada as Padre Primitivo
Elisa Crehuet Photo
Elisa Crehuet as Josefina adulta
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
976.72 MB
1280*682
Spanish 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  ca  ro  es  
24 fps
1 hr 46 min
Seeds 17
1.96 GB
1920*1024
Spanish 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  ca  ro  es  
24 fps
1 hr 46 min
Seeds 32

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Nozz 8 / 10

Simplistic, but beautiful

I saw the preview and wanted to watch this movie if only for the wonderful stone alleyways of Spain (and the occasional landscape). I found that the director is also fond of faces illumined by the ostensibly pre-electric lighting of the humble homes.The protagonist is a progressive schoolteacher who is unwelcome in a Spanish village that is leaning toward fascism in the 1930s. He was a real person, and there is no doubt that he fully deserves to be memorialized on film, but his portrayal here as mister wonderful is a little over the top. His only fault is his incautiousness, which he's aware of and doesn't consider a fault.So even though there's an attempt to add a dimension by means of a second plot set during the present day, the movie doesn't offer a lot of intellectual oomph to go with its beauty and well-meaningness.
Reviewed by ma-cortes 6 / 10

The buried memories of the Spanish Civil War are unearthed and discovering a good teacher finely played by Enric Auquer.

An acceptable and passable film chronicling the tragedy of barbaric slaughter in the Spanish Civil War. Ariadna (Laia Costa) discovers that her grandfather has been searching for the remains of her father, who disappeared in the Civil War, for a long time. Determined to help him, she travels to Burgos, where they are exhuming a mass grave in which he might be buried. During her stay there, she will learn the story of Antoni Benaiges (Enric Auquer), a young teacher from Tarragona who before the war was her grandfather's teacher. So she discovers the story of an idealistic young teacher from Tarragona. Later on , Ariana meets an old man (Ramón Agirre) from the area that also hopes to find those of Antoni Benaiges, his teacher, there. Another story concerning a good man by means of flashback, a sympathetic teacher using an innovative pedagogical method, Antoni Benaiges inspired his students and made them a promise: to take them to see the sea.Here a superb Enric Auquer (La Vida Padre) gives life to the idealistic Republican teacher Antoni Benaiges in this emotional biopic set in the Spain of the pre-war and during the outbreak of the civil war based on the homonymous book written by Francesc Escribano. The film unites two separated stories by 75 years, the first one deals with Ariana decides to travel from Barcelona to Monte de la Pedraja, in Burgos, to find out if the remains of her great-grandfather are in the mass grave that is being excavated and the second one about a adorable and likeable teacher. Although the real story of the teacher is adequately fitted, explained and dramatized, its reflection in the present is weaker, functional and, of course, less dramatically constructed. Auquer does a work of touching delicacy and tenderness playing a man who taught the children the value of knowledge and made them a promise: to take them to the sea. A very sad and terrible story, a very agreeable film.¨The Teacher Who Promised the Sea¨ turns out to be an intense drama with historical and biographical elements ; including awesome performances and adequate set design . ¨El maestro que prometió el mar¨ results to be other of the innumerable stories to deal with dramatic deeds regarding the Civil War background. A familiar theme about the global horrors of a fratricide war , impossible to forget to our cinema . The movie is attractive enough, but I prefer the much better ¨La lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly, 1999)¨ by Jose Luis Cuerda, starring Fernando Fernán Gómez. An agreeable at the same time downbeat story with plenty of enjoyable moments , moving feelings and tragic finale .Filmed in usual formal and stylistic scholarship , without leaving a trace the thought-provoking issues , in terms of dramatic and narrative excitement. The flick can be defined as a realistic tragedy-drama, a story in search of one's own roots , a historic fresco and a socio-political fable . The main problem has to face , beyond not being able to avoid falling into the politic pamphlet is precisely derived from the coldness of its staging , some slow-moving scenes and extreme manichaeism. Because the story needs a vibration more real than the one offered in this sometimes joyful as well as sad flick , though also contains humorous and charming moments when the children are gathered and play and enjoy with the teacher, and of course the strong and moving ending.The motion picture was professionally directed by filmmaker/script supervisor/writer Patricia Font at her third feature film. She has also directed Pared con pared y Gente que viene y bah. And various TV episodes, such as: The Red Band Society, La templanza, Citas, Moebius, among others. The drama has just opened in Romania, Italy and Russia and will do so briefly in Austria and Alemania. The film was nominated for the 2025 Goya Awards for: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Costume Design and Best Original Music. Rating: 5.5/10.
Reviewed by danielparam 10 / 10

True Story Deserves Wider Exposure!

I felt very lucky to discover this film on a Singapore Airllines flight! It tells the story of a beautiful progressive teacher, a follower of the little known and quite revolutionary "Frienet Method", who tries it out in a tiny village school in rural Spain. Bad timing! He comes up against the local priest, a died-in-the-wool authoritarian, and subsequently is ratted on to the incoming authoritarian government and troops of Franco, in the lead-up to the Spanish Civil War. He is beaten up, paraded almost lifeless before his young pupils, and subsequently murdered, and his body dumped, never to be found. The film rediscovers his story via the attempts of the great-grandaughter of one of his pupils to find her great-grandfather's own burial in a mass grave. I found it very moving and a great testimony to the humanity and spirit of this teacher. It deserves more attention and screening on the arthouse circuit at least, in the UK, Europe, and where I live in Australia. Unfortunately the "true story" book on which it is based does not seem to be available in Engish as yet.
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