Superstar Mexican actor and comedian Eugenio Derbez gives a big-hearted crowd-pleasing performance as an inspirational teacher in this uplifting Sundance favourite. “Based on the remarkable true story of Sergio Juarez Correa, a teacher in the northeastern Mexican border town of Matamoros, the film was hatched by Christopher Zalla out of a Wired magazine article by Joshua Davis… It’s set in 2011, an especially heated time in the drug wars, in a city plagued by violent crime, poverty and corruption, where the outlook is so grim that education beyond the basics is often viewed as a waste of time.

View the full NZIFF 2023 programme at nziff.co.nz.