Der Lehrer, der uns das Meer versprach

I felt very lucky to discover this film on a Singapore Airllines flight! It tells the story of a beautiful progressive teacher, a follower of the little known and quite revolutionary "Frienet Method", who tries it out in a tiny village school in rural Spain. Bad timing! He comes up against the local priest, a died-in-the-wool authoritarian, and subsequently is ratted on to the incoming authoritarian government and troops of Franco, in the lead-up to the Spanish Civil War. He is beaten up, paraded almost lifeless before his young pupils, and subsequently murdered, and his body dumped, never to be found. The film rediscovers his story via the attempts of the great-grandaughter of one of his pupils to find her great-grandfather's own burial in a mass grave. I found it very moving and a great testimony to the humanity and spirit of this teacher. It deserves more attention and screening on the arthouse circuit at least, in the UK, Europe, and where I live in Australia. Unfortunately the "true story" book on which it is based does not seem to be available in Engish as yet.