The Teacher Who Promised the Sea - Expat Cinema

In 1935, young Antoni Benaiges is appointed as the new teacher at a small school in a remote village in Burgos, Spain. Education was traditionally strict and traditional, but the idealistic Benaiges takes a very different approach: he lets his pupils think, fantasise and dream for themselves. He also promises to take them to the sea one day. 75 years later, Ariadna, great-granddaughter of one of Benaiges' pupils, discovers the forgotten story behind that promise. Searching for the grave of her great-grandfather, one of the many victims of the Spanish Civil War, she also manages to find out what happened to Benaiges.

In 2013, the novel Desenterrando el silencio. Antoni Benaiges, el maestro que prometió el mar by Catalan writer Francesc Escribano was published, in which he tells the true story of an innovative teacher and the fate that awaited him under Franco's fascists. Patricia Font filmed it, Escribano co-produced the film.