One fast-consolidating industry lore, compounded by Toronto dealing – or lack of it – has it that non-English-language dramas don’t sell.

Try telling that, however, to Filmax. “The Teacher Who Promised the Sea,” chronicling the tragedy of barbaric slaughter  in the Spanish Civil War, has not only sold but opened in Italy and Australia to boffo box office numbers for an art film. 

In Italy, bought by Officine UBU and released on Sept. 19, “The Teacher” has grossed €551,066 ($589,641), opened on 84 screens, a notable spread with no big name director nor huge stars. 

In Australia, released by upscale move bastion Palace Films, “The Teacher” is still playing cinemas, powering to $436,744 from a July 26 bow on 22 screens. 

The drama has just opened in Romania and Russia and will do so briefly in Austria and Alemania. These bows follow sales by Filmax – which produces with Minoría Absoluta, Lastor Media, Mestres Films AIE – to Nachshon Films in Israel, Angel Films in Scandinavia and India’s BookMyShow. A sales deal has just closed for Benelux. 

For any art film to function, the stars have to align. That has happened for “The Teacher.” 

The first feature from Patricia Font, a Goya best fiction short winner for “Café para llevar,” “The Teacher” traces two stories, separated by 75 years. In 2010, Ariadna (Laia Costa, “Lullaby”), sets out for Burgos in central northern Spain to grant her grandfather, Carlos, his dying wish, to locate body of his father. Bernardo Ramirez, who disappeared during the outset of the Spanish Civil War when a military uprising slaughtered potential opponents all over Spain. An unmarked mass grave has just been discovered nearby Bañuelos de Bureba, where he lived. 

Unsuccessful in her search, Ariadna soon learns about the Antoni Benaiges, the village’s school teacher over 1934-36, who taught according to the precepts of French reformer Célestin Freinet and left a huge mark on his pupils.  

“Children have to learn what they want to be but, above all, to be children,” Benaiges says, setting up a printing press for his students, aged 6-12, to write in a journal about the sea, which they’ve never seen.  

“You’re the strangest teacher to ever set foot in this town,” replies his housekeeper, but not disapprovingly.

Inspired by the real-life figure of Benaiges, “The Teacher Who Promised the Sea” has drawn enthusiastic reviews, especially for the performance of Enric Auquer (“An Eye for an Eye”) as the exuberant and inspiring Benaiges.

“The film is a joy, despite such sadness,” proclaims Stephen Romei at the Australian.

There is also the immense poignancy of Benaiges’ offer to take his wards to the coast in the summer of 1936, a promise he was not able to keep. 

Benaiges’ “gentle, roguish character lifts the film with his promise for a future of expansive horizons,” writes Australian reviewer Jane Freebery. 

Though largely set at the outset of the Spanish Civil War, “The Teacher Who Promised the Sea” has a large contemporary relevance. 

The military rebellion, which came to be led by Francisco Franco, turned back the clock in Spain. Just months before “The Teacher” was released in Spain in November 2023, Spain’s far right Vox party had come very close to gaining power in general elections with an agenda which annulled hard-fought modern freedoms, had it won. 

Driven by its emotive relevance, “The Teacher Who Promised the Sea” grossed a standout €1.7 million ($1.9 million) in Spain, another reason for its international takeoff.

That sense of contemporary point is not limited to Spain. 

“The public has responded with great interest since the first sold-out screenings throughout Italy, which contributed to the positive word of mouth. We believe that Antoni Benaiges’ story has touched the hearts of the Italian public both because it evokes a very painful past that our country has also experienced, and because it conveys messages of freedom, dedication and resistance to the oppressive regimes that are undermining democracy in many parts of the world, recalling the importance of preserving the memory of those who fought, even at the cost of their own lives, to allow us to live as free people,” said Franco Zuliani, managing director of Officine UBU. 

“We have also collaborated intensively with schools and teachers throughout Italy who have helped us organize numerous screenings for hundreds of students,” he added.

Results also reflect the quality, energy and commitment of release campaigns. In the case of Palace in Australia, it invested in producing new creative via U.K. designer Time Tomorrow that focused on the connection between the lead character and his students, art that has since been picked up by Germany for its release. 

“Whilst the film has somber themes, there is also enormous warmth and humor, and those moments were highlighted in all our materials,” says Palace’s Nicolas Whatson.  .

Palace premiered the film as a Centrepiece title of the 2024 Spanish Film Festival which seeded awareness and most importantly established word of mouth in 25 venues across Australia.

It also invested “significantly” in social media, where it became one of the most ‘engaged with’ campaigns Palace has conducted in recent years. “It became clear very quickly that it was a audiences were deeply affected by the film, and wanted to discuss and share with their friends and family.  It was actively recommended and endorsed: Viewers became advocates,” Whatson reflected. 

“The Teacher Who Promised the Sea” has since become one of the highest-grossing Spanish-language films in Australia over the last five-to-six years, a result on par with films from Pedro Almodóvar, who along with Carla Simon is arguably the only “commercially established” name director from contemporary Spain here in Australia/New Zealand, he added.

“It cost a bit to begin to with – buyers aren’t so keen to take much risk with dramas these days – but once we could show the film’s success in Spain, this began to heat up and ‘The Teacher Who Promised the Sea’ will end up being one of our recent films with most theatrical bows in international,” said Iván Díaz, Filmax head of international. 

By Variety - See full article here

THE TEACHER WHO PROMISED THE SEA