First Trailer for Wonderful Mexican Film ‘Radical’ with Eugenio Derbez
by Alex Billington
August 3, 2023
Source: YouTube
“What each and every one of you needs… you already have it.” Pantelion Films has revealed a teaser trailer for Radical, the latest film from director Christopher Zalla. This first premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to rave reviews (here’s mine), winning the “Festival Favorite Award”. 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. Based on a true story (from 2013), which introduced the world to one young Mexican girl who they put on magazine covers. Eugenio Derbez stars as the teacher, Sergio, along with Daniel Haddad and a cast of vibrant young local kids. The “radical” method he uses is basically throwing out the text books and teaching them how to use their intuition to figure things out, free thinking ingenuity helps stretch their young brains. I saw this film at Sundance and really loved it – inspiring and hopeful and encouraging in all the right ways.
Here’s the first teaser trailer (+ poster) for Christopher Zalla’s Radical, direct from Pantelion’s YouTube:
Via Sundance: “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… it is also the perfect place for new teacher Sergio Juarez to try something different. There’s just one problem: Sergio (played by an amazing Eugenio Derbez) has no idea what he’s doing.” Radical is both written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Zalla, director of the movies Blood of My Blood and Beautiful & Twisted previously, plus a few shorts and TV work directing on “Law & Order”. Based on the 2013 Wired article by Joshua Davis. Produced by Ben Odell, Eugenio Derbez, and Joshua Davis. This initially premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year (read our review). Pantelion Films debuts Zalla’s Radical in select US theaters starting October 20th, 2023 this fall.
