Teachers in cinema often stand at the crossroads of idealism and disillusionment. Beyond textbooks and blackboards, they confront questions of ethics, empathy, and the limits of change. The five films below — from Denmark, Spain, Germany, Mexico, and Croatia — explore teaching as an act of resistance, vulnerability, and hope. Each one transforms the classroom into a mirror of society, revealing that education is never just about knowledge, but about survival, courage, and human connection.
Another Round (Denmark, 2020) – When Losing Control Becomes a Lesson
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round (Druk) follows four teachers experimenting with the theory that maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood might make life more bearable — and their teaching more inspired. What begins as a darkly comic social experiment evolves into a profound reflection on midlife crisis, lost passion, and the fragile joy of being alive. Mads Mikkelsen’s magnetic performance captures both euphoria and despair, while Vinterberg balances chaos with grace. Winner of the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, it’s a celebration and a lament — a dance between recklessness and renewal.
The Teacher Who Promised the Sea (Spain, 2023) – Education as a Political Inheritance
In El maestro que prometió el mar, Patricia Font brings to life the true story of Antoni Benaiges, a teacher during Spain’s Second Republic who used progressive methods to inspire rural children — until the Civil War silenced him. The film bridges past and present, combining historical reconstruction with a quiet emotional intensity. Through Benaiges’s legacy, it reminds us that education can be both a radical and tender act, one that survives beyond violence. Its photography — sun-drenched yet melancholic — mirrors the tension between memory and erasure, between the promise of the sea and the cruelty of history.
The Teacher’s Lounge (Germany, 2023) – Integrity Under Surveillance
İlker Çatak’s The Teacher’s Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer) turns a school microcosm into a social thriller. When a young teacher, portrayed by Leonie Benesch, tries to solve a small case of theft, she becomes entangled in questions of trust, bias, and institutional paranoia. The film’s precision — its editing, sound design, and moral tension — transforms the mundane into suspense. Winner of Best European Film at the European Film Awards, it captures how easily authority and suspicion can corrupt the pursuit of fairness. Here, the teacher’s task isn’t just to instruct, but to defend her own humanity.
Radical (Mexico, 2023) – The Classroom as a Revolution
Based on real events, Christopher Zalla’s Radical centers on a teacher in a struggling Mexican border town who dares to defy traditional systems by empowering his students through curiosity and creativity. Eugenio Derbez, in one of his most nuanced performances, sheds his comedic persona to embody a man who believes that education can break cycles of despair. Winner of the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance, the film radiates warmth and urgency, portraying teaching not as a job but as an act of social transformation. It’s a reminder that in broken systems, imagination can be the most radical tool.
The Staffroom (Croatia, 2021) – The Politics of Everyday Teaching
In Sonja Tarokić’s The Staffroom (Zbornica), a young counselor enters a Croatian school only to discover that bureaucracy, gossip, and moral fatigue are as present as the students. Through careful observation and a handheld camera, Tarokić exposes the silent hierarchies that shape educational institutions. The staffroom becomes a stage for generational conflict, professional compromise, and the struggle to preserve empathy amid exhaustion. It’s an understated but powerful portrait of the education system as a microcosm of a nation’s anxieties.
Each of these films transcends the archetype of “the good teacher.” They show mentors as flawed, restless, and deeply human — individuals caught between their ideals and the systems that try to contain them. Together, they remind us that to teach is to expose oneself: to believe in others even when belief itself feels impossible.
