by Julian Wood
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Enric Auquer, Laia Costa, Luisa Gavasa, Ramón Agirre
Intro:
… there is the pleasure not only of the beautiful Catalonian scenery but a quietly plangent tale of both human warmth and cruelty.
History is always with us, not least when passed down through family reminisces and private narratives. It is also the case that personal lives intersect with historical events. This link is made clear in heartfelt Spanish art movie The Teacher who Promised the Sea, about the legacy of the Spanish Civil War.
Our protagonist is archaeologist Ariadna, winningly played by Laia Costa. She is on the hunt for clues about what happened to her grandfather’s family during the war. She is involved in a dig in the coastal town of Tarragona in Catalonia in Eastern Spain. The town was a stronghold of the Republican forces in the war until, sadly, it was overrun by the nationalist forces of General Franco in 1939. A swift and terrible retribution was served on the local inhabitants soon after, except, of course, for those that sold out and aligned with the Rightist forces.
Intertwined with Ariadna’s search is the story of idealistic young teacher Antonio (Enric Auquer). He takes up a position in the town and has a small primary level class. Pretty soon they come to adore him, and he connects with them via his emotionally rich way of teaching. The local school inspector dislikes both Antonio’s politics and his evident success with the children, and plots to bring him down.
Patricia Font’s film alternates between the two stories and their respective time periods, which is a familiar device to show the parallels between the two stories. The performances are very good across the board. The portrayal of Antonio and his classroom of perfect kids veers close to sentimentality in places but it is hard not to like this gentle and committed teacher as the kids clearly do. In tone, it reminds one of the much-loved Canadian classroom drama Monsieur Lazhar. The film is not all rose-tinted nostalgia though, and the touches of neo-Fascist brutality are shocking enough to remind us of what was at stake in that war.
For Spanish audiences in particular, this sense of unresolved injustice (many of the collaborators were never outed or punished) will resonate. For others, there is the pleasure not only of the beautiful Catalonian scenery but a quietly plangent tale of both human warmth and cruelty.
