Honest, playful, powerfully inspiring story about a teacher who takes a radical approach with overlooked, apathetic kids to trigger their curiosity and discover the joy of learning. Based on true events.
In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students' apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential… and maybe even their genius. Who will the sixth-grade students at Jose Urbina Lopez Elementary in Matamoros become? They are among the worst performing students in Mexico, the world they know is one of violence and hardship, and their classrooms are dominated by an atmosphere of overbearing discipline, not possibility. It might seem like a dead end… but it is also the perfect place for new teacher Sergio Juarez to try something different.
"In 2018, Ben Odell sent me the article in Wired magazine that the movie was based on. /…/ In the article, there's this phenomenal true story of what the students actually accomplished in just one year. /…/ Sergio turned this school around in the most radical way. /…/ As we peeled back the onion on the real story, we discovered that Sergio had a nervous breakdown. All he wanted to do was be a teacher that affected lives - because he had that teacher - and he was failing miserably. He had to try something totally different." (Christopher Zalla)