De aanschuiftafel diner + film: The Teacher Who Promised the Sea

Don’t feel like cooking for yourself? Looking for some good company during dinner? And would you like to enjoy a great film afterwards?

At Aanschuiftafel, the tables are pushed together so everyone can join in and enjoy a delicious meal together. Chef Pol prepares a cinema plat du jour plus dessert, and after dinner, it’s time for the movie.

Start time 18:00: arrival and shared dinner
Around 20:00: the film begins

About the film:
In 1935, Antoni Benaiges (Enric Auquer) is appointed as a teacher in a small, remote village in Burgos, Spain. His class consists of boys and girls aged six to twelve, for whom education had been strict and traditional up to that point. But Benaiges does things differently.

He brings a printing press and encourages the children to write about their dreams and ambitions. He also makes them a remarkable promise: one day, he will take them to see the sea—a world entirely unknown to them.

Seventy-five years later, Ariadna (Laia Costa), the granddaughter of one of his pupils, uncovers the moving and forgotten story behind that promise. Her search for the remains of her great-grandfather, one of the many who ‘disappeared’ during the Spanish Civil War, leads her to a mass grave in Burgos. There, she uncovers the fate of Benaiges, whose ideals and innovative teaching methods made him a target.

The Teacher Who Promised the Sea is a powerful historical drama based on the true story of Antoni Benaiges (1903–1936) and the novel El maestro que prometió el mar by Francesc Escribano. Escribano, the author of the book, is also one of the film’s producers.

Together with director Patricia Font, he brings an emotionally gripping film about the pain that is still palpable in Spanish society, while also paying tribute to a man who believed in his students’ future—and a promise that, despite everything, lives on.