The Teacher Who Promised the Sea (Spanish: El maestro que prometió el mar) is a 2023 Spanish historical drama film directed by Patricia Font from a screenplay by Albert Val, based on the book by Francesc Escribano. It stars Enric Auquer and Laia Costa alongside Luisa Gavasa.

The plot tracks the story of Catalan teacher Antoni Benaiges, destined in 1935 to a small village in the province of Burgos (introducing innovative and inspiring teaching methods from France among the children before being murdered by Falangists during the Civil War), as well as the present-day story of Ariadna, searching for her great-grandfather, disappeared during the War.^{[2][3][4][n. 1]}

Penned by Albert Val, the screenplay is an adaptation of the book by Francesc Escribano. The film is a Minoria Absoluta, Lastor Media, Filmax, and Mestres Films AIE production with the participation of RTVE and TV3 and backing from ICAA and ICEC.^[3][2] Shooting locations included Mura and Briviesca.^[5][8]

The film had its world premiere at the 68th Valladolid International Film Festival on 27 October 2023.^[9][10][11] Distributed by Filmax, it was released theatrically in Spain on 10 November 2023.^[12][13][14] It opened in only 83 screens, but the satisfactory box office performance (with a positive weekly change in the gross reportedly owing to the word of mouth) led to an increase in the number of screens up to 124.^[14]

Ekaitz Ortega of HobbyConsolas rated the film with 73 points ('good') highlighting how it "has its own identity, it is not complacent and the two [lead] actors standing out", as the best things about it.^[15]

Enid Román Almansa of Cinemanía rated the film 4½ out of 5 stars underscoring "a very sad and terrible story, a very beautiful film".^[4]

• List of Spanish films of 2023