José Urbina López Elementary, in the city of Matamoros, in north-eastern Mexico, is one of the poorest performing educational establishments in the country. The battle-weary staff consider it a win if more than half of the pupils just show up to class. Then a new teacher joins the school and turns the tired, rote-learned routine upside-down – literally. The kids arrive to discover that Mr Juárez, or Sergio, as he prefers to be called, has upended the tables and turned them into lifeboats in the shark-infested waters of the classroom. This comedy/drama shows that even the hardest of hearts can be won over by a mix of good humour and imagination. . (Mexico 2023)