Alan in Belfast: Radical – equipping children to learn, looking past the poverty to see the potential (QFT from Saturday 10 August)

What happens if you abandon a strict curriculum, if you shy away from a testing system that rewards recall of facts, and instead give children the skills to learn independently? In the case of a school which previously suffered large scale dropouts and was at the bottom of exam league tables, the answer turned out to be a complete reversal of fortunes for the school and, much more importantly, the children.

New film Radical is based on real events in Matamoros, a town close to the Mexico/US border. Sergio Juárez Correa (played by Eugenio Derbez) is new to the elementary school and quickly makes waves with his unorthodox teaching techniques. His first lesson involves turning the tables upside down and pretending they are lifeboats, leading to discussions about displacement and density, as well as ethics. Sergio believes that people can learn by getting things wrong. “Who wants to be wrong first?” he asks and then waits for hands to slowly be raised.

If the pupils are at first bemused, the other staff are unhappy, and the school principal requires a lot of convincing that Sergio isn’t taking him for a fool. Over two hours – which pass in a flash – we watch the effect Mr Juárez’s approach has on three pupils.

Paloma (Jennifer Trejo) lives at the side of a dump in which her father scours daily for scrap that he can sell. She has a natural affinity for mathematics and dreams about space. But her star is certain never to shine given the poverty into which she was born and her dad’s dismissal of her “fantasies”.

The class joker Nico (Danilo Guardiola) is sweet on Paloma. He has a quick wit that compensates for his internal struggles with being forced to work on the side for a drugs gang who are laundering money.

Whereas Paloma gravitates to the mathematical and practical science aspects of Mr Juárez’s teaching, fellow student Lupe (Mia Fernanda Solis) picks up on the philosophical questions and discovers the rich resources available on the shelves of a municipal library. Lupe is the eldest child in an expanding family. Despite her thirst for knowledge, she is expected to quit school to look after her youngest sibling to allow her mum to return to work to provide for the family.

School is portrayed as a secure oasis in a relatively violent town. Societal corruption is established through the missing school computer lab and the local administrator’s slippery attitude.

Derbez conjures up a teacher who is dripping with enthusiasm and confidence that his novel technique will bear fruitful results. Trejo is brilliantly cast as Paloma, delivers a terrific performance as a pupil with great ability that sits outside the in-crowd of the class for so many reasons.

You’ll see parallels between Sergio’s approach in Radical and the Montessori method of education. You’ll think about the late Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. And your memory may also be drawn back to the recent film Young Plato which showcased the work of head teacher Kevin McArevey in Holy Cross Boys’ Primary School in north Belfast.

Based on a 2013 article by Joshua Davis in Wired magazine, screenwriter/director Christopher Zalla has crafted Radical into a story of how a motivated dreamer can empower young people to demonstrate their potential. It is imbued with a feelgood sensibility that miraculously never quite turns to mush. It’s a sanitised and emotionally shaped film. (I’m going to choose to overlook the impossibility of Paloma seeing the SpaceX launch site across the border in Boca Chica from Matamoros through a small telescope!) But it’s also one that takes its time to challenge the audience about the practicality of Sergio’s technique and the sacrifice that is required to stand up and be different.

Radical is being screened at Queen’s Film Theatre from Saturday 10 August. Well worth a visit.