The 30 Best Films About Teachers and Students

Cinema, in its most authentic form, has always offered an implacable mirror of human formation. There are the great classics that have made the teacher-student relationship unforgettable—and you will find them here—but the true heart of this theme beats in the rawest and most complex dynamics, revealing its challenges, deviations, and unexpected triumphs. This is not a list of easy comedies; it is a map of great works that have used the school environment as a magnifying glass on the faults and hopes of society.

From rural post-revolutionary Iranian schools to the complex high schools of European social critique, the theme of education becomes a pretext for exploring universal questions: class struggle, the search for identity, and resistance to authority. The school system is portrayed not as a temple of knowledge, but as a microcosm of political, economic, and personal tensions.

This definitive guide is a path that unites the most celebrated masterpieces with independent productions that have told the story of teaching with brutal honesty. They demonstrate how true teaching, often, does not happen in the classroom, but in the clashes, silences, and unexpected gestures between the teacher and the one who, while trying to learn, ends up educating their own master.

The Class – Entre les murs (2008)

The film is an almost documentary-style immersion into a school year in a high school in the Parisian banlieue, following literature teacher François Marin and his students, who are multi-ethnic and rebellious. Through sharp dialogues and heated confrontations, issues of integration, cultural differences, and the inevitable challenges to authority emerge. The core of the narrative lies in the clash between Marin’s pedagogical idealism and the raw, provocative reality of his students, in a constant tug-of-war between discipline and freedom.

This masterpiece of European cinema, winner of the Palme d’Or, is a striking example of social realism applied to the school system. The analysis focuses not on a single hero, but on the structural failure of communication. The screenplay, based on François Bégaudeau’s autobiographical experience, explores how the complex teacher-student relationship is relentlessly challenged by issues of identity, language, and social critique, emphasizing the unbridgeable distance between institutions and street life.

Where Is the Friend’s Home? (1987)

The young Ahmad discovers he has accidentally taken his deskmate, Mohammad Reza’s, notebook, who risks expulsion if he doesn’t hand it in the next day. Driven by a sense of urgency and responsibility, Ahmad embarks on a long journey on foot through the villages to find his friend’s house and rectify the mistake. The film is a touching childhood odyssey through the rural landscape, told with the simplicity and depth typical of its author.

A cornerstone of Iranian cinema and Abbas Kiarostami’s “Koker Trilogy,” this film uses the figure of the master and the threat of school punishment to trigger a reflection on morality, empathy, and community. The child’s obsessive search becomes a powerful metaphor for loyalty and ethical formation outside school walls. Kiarostami, a master in the use of non-professional actors, delivers an ode to neo-realism that elevates simple gestures to matters of life and death.

Monster (2023)

A single mother confronts her son’s elementary school after the boy begins to exhibit problematic behavior. Suspicion immediately falls on the boy’s teacher, accused of mistreatment. The narrative develops through the reversal of viewpoints: first the mother’s, then the teacher’s, and finally the children’s, revealing a truth about friendship and loneliness that is much more nuanced and painful.

The master of Japanese cinema, Hirokazu Kore-eda, despite not penning the screenplay for the first time, masterfully explores childhood and emotional formation. The film is a meditation on the inability of adults to grasp the purity and complexity of youthful dynamics. The school and the teacher become the battlefield where adult prejudices nullify the affection and identity of the children, demonstrating how true learning is often a matter of acceptance.

The Selfish Giant (2013)

Two thirteen-year-old working-class friends in Yorkshire, Arbor and Swifty, are expelled from school and seek to earn money by collecting scrap metal. They are taken under the wing of a local dealer, Kitten, in a risky and desperate mentorship dynamic. Their search for fortune leads them into a world of exploitation and danger, a difficult and unsolicited path of formation.

Clio Barnard directs a powerful British social realism drama, loosely inspired by an Oscar Wilde fairy tale, that highlights economic marginality and the lack of opportunities for the younger generation. Learning here is underground: the boys learn the ruthless rules of survival outside a school system that rejected them. Kitten, the scrap dealer, acts as a dark mentor, offering a pragmatic but morally destructive education that ties the film to the theme of the complex teacher-student relationship in extreme contexts.

The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)

Lisa Spinelli, a Staten Island kindergarten teacher with an unsatisfied life and an unfulfilled passion for poetry, discovers that one of her five-year-old students, Jimmy, is a prodigious poet. Obsessed with nurturing this talent and saving the child from an “ordinary” life, Lisa crosses every ethical boundary, endangering herself and the young student.

A remake of an Israeli psychological drama, this film is a disquieting and complex exploration of the teacher-student relationship taken to the extreme. Lisa embodies a perverse form of alternative pedagogy, where the passion for art blends with ambition and obsession. The film outlines a sharp psychological portrait of a teacher who uses the child’s talent to redeem her own failures, raising burning questions about ethics, authority, and the limits of intellectual formation.

Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform) (1931)

Set in a severe Prussian girls’ boarding school, the new student Manuela von Meinhardis falls in love with her charming and understanding teacher, Fraülein von Bernburg. The attraction is reciprocated with a kindness that breaks the institution’s rigidity, but when Manuela’s feelings become public, the clash with the authoritarian headmistress and the school’s repressive system is inevitable.

Considered a classic of pre-war European cinema, this is one of the first films to openly address lesbianism and criticize the authoritarianism of the traditional school system. It is a drama about the formation of identity in a hostile environment. The complex teacher-student relationship here is a symbol of resistance against repression and social oppression, a theme dear to auteur cinema.

A Teacher (2013)

Diana Watts, a high school teacher in an unsatisfactory relationship, begins an illicit sexual affair with one of her students, Eric. The film traces Diana’s slow, inexorable descent into obsession and despair, while the boy tries to move on with his life. It is an uncomfortable and close-up portrait of the consequences of the forbidden relationship on the teacher’s life.

This American independent cinema drama, presented at the Sundance Film Festival, stands out for its sobriety and refusal to sensationalize the theme. Director Hannah Fidell focuses on Diana’s perspective, exploring the psychological motivations and loneliness that drive her to commit the abuse. It is a cold and implacable analysis of the complex teacher-student relationship where power and ethics are perverted.

All Things Fair (Lust och fägring stor) (1995)

Set in Sweden in 1943, fifteen-year-old Stig begins a clandestine relationship with his teacher, Viola, a married woman twenty years his senior. Their secret passion is consumed in a climate of war and emotional repression. The film explores the intense forbidden relationship and the moral and personal consequences of this secret union.

Directed by Bo Widerberg, this Swedish film is an intense drama about sexual and sentimental formation. Beneath the surface of the prohibited relationship, the film serves as a subtle social critique of bourgeois morality and society’s hypocrisy during wartime. The experience of the student Stig is a brutal acceleration of growth, marked by the ethical ambiguity of his mentor and lover.

Detachment (2011)

Henry Barthes, an emotionally detached substitute teacher, arrives at a public high school on the brink of collapse, populated by cynical students and exhausted faculty. Despite his professional indifference, Henry finds himself confronting the pain of the students and establishing deep, yet fleeting, bonds with a troubled student and a young prostitute.

This American independent cinema film, with a fragmented and melancholic visual style, offers a devastating social critique of the contemporary school system, portrayed as an emotional war zone. Henry, despite not wanting to be a role model, ends up offering a form of alternative pedagogy: learning is not in the curriculum, but in empathy and mutual recognition of pain. It is an honest and desolate portrait of the emotional burden carried by teachers.

Half Nelson (2006)

Dan Dunne is a young history teacher in a Brooklyn middle school. Brilliant and passionate in class, where he tries to use dialectics to teach his students about great historical changes, Dan hides a crack cocaine addiction. When one of his students, Drey, discovers him, an unusual and delicate complex teacher-student relationship forms between them.

This American independent cinema film is praised for its authenticity and Ryan Gosling’s performance. The dynamic between Dan and Drey is a touching example of reciprocal formation: the teacher struggles with his demons while the student seeks guidance to escape her environment. The film avoids the clichés of Hollywood redemption, proposing a raw social realism about failure and hope in the heart of the urban school system.

Kes (1969)

Billy Casper, a shy, dreamy teenager in a Yorkshire mining town, is oppressed by school and his violent brother. He finds comfort and purpose in training a kestrel he names Kes. His relationship with the bird becomes the only true source of formation and freedom, and his enthusiasm for Kes leads him to a rare, albeit brief, positive interaction with a gym teacher.

A pillar of British social realism directed by Ken Loach, Kes is a fierce social critique of the school system that crushes the individuality and talent of the lower classes. Billy’s true education happens through the love and care for Kes, an expression of alternative pedagogy that contrasts with the violence and indifference of institutions.

My Afternoons with Margueritte (La Tête en Friche) (2010)

Germain, a nearly illiterate and overweight fifty-year-old, accidentally meets Margueritte, an elderly, cultured woman passionate about reading, sitting on a park bench. Margueritte begins to read aloud to Germain, introducing him to the world of books. Despite the difference in age and social background, a delicate complex teacher-student relationship develops between the two.

This gem of European cinema (French) is a touching comedy-drama that celebrates the power of late formation and the value of popular culture. Margueritte is the figure of the unconventional teacher, who uses literature not to impart notions, but to provide dignity and hope. It is a film about alternative pedagogy that flourishes outside the classroom, demonstrating that learning is an act of love and resistance.

The White Balloon (1995)

Just before the start of the Iranian New Year, a little girl named Razieh desperately wants a new goldfish for the holiday. To get it, she must cross the crowded streets of Tehran, facing small dangers and the greed of adults, quickly learning a harsh lesson about social dynamics and the value of money.

Directed by Jafar Panahi, a pupil of Kiarostami, this film represents another gem of Iranian cinema that focuses on the child’s world. Although not set in a school, the girl’s journey is an accelerated and brutal process of formation within the city’s social realism. It is an example of the alternative pedagogy of the street, where every encounter and every obstacle become lessons on how to navigate society’s contradictions.

Metropolitan (1990)

Set among the high bourgeoisie of Manhattan during debutante season, a group of privileged young people, known as the “U.H.B.,” gathers to discuss life, philosophy, Jane Austen, and the decline of their class. Tom, an idealistic but less affluent Princeton student, is welcomed into the group, learning (or rejecting) the rules of their world.

The debut of American independent cinema director Whit Stillman is a brilliant and cultured satire. The setting is not the school, but society itself, which acts as an institution of formation for its young members. The intellectual dialogue and the disquisitions on socialism and bourgeois morality represent an underground form of learning and social critique, questioning the notions of privilege and elitist education.

The Browning Version (1951)

Andrew Crocker-Harris, a Latin and Greek teacher at an English public school, is a bitter man, feared by his students and dominated by his unfaithful wife. On his last day of work, a small act of kindness from a student who gives him a rare copy of a Browning translation forces him to confront the failure of his professional and personal life.

A classic of European cinema (British) that serves as a bitter reflection on the teaching profession. The film explores the theme of the failed mentor and emotional isolation. The act of the student, Taplow, becomes the only true lesson in humanity and formation that Professor Crocker-Harris receives after years of indifference, revealing how a teacher’s real impact can emerge in the smallest gestures.

The Wild Child (L’Enfant Sauvage) (1970)

Based on a true story, the film recounts the discovery of a feral boy (Victor of Aveyron) who lived isolated in the woods. Dr. Jean Itard, a doctor at the Institute for the Deaf and Mute, takes him in, patiently trying to educate him in language and social conventions. The relationship between the cynical but compassionate doctor and the untamed boy is an experiment in radical formation.

Directed by François Truffaut, this film is a profound investigation into the concept of alternative pedagogy and human nature. The doctor-patient relationship transforms into a complex teacher-student relationship where the limits of learning and civilization are questioned. The film celebrates the doctor’s perseverance as a mentor, but also the boy’s resistance to fully conforming to the conventional school system.

Whiplash (2014)

Andrew Neiman, a young and ambitious jazz drummer, is recruited into the implacable and prestigious band of the Shaffer Conservatory, led by the tyrannical and abusive Terence Fletcher. The complex teacher-student relationship between the two degenerates into a psychological battle for perfection, pushing Andrew to the limit of his physical and mental endurance.

Although produced with a relatively high budget for an American independent cinema film, Whiplash maintains an underground and radical spirit in its analysis of mentorship. The film interrogates the fine line between inspiration and abuse, showcasing an alternative pedagogy based on fear. Fletcher is the anti-master who symbolizes a competitive and dehumanizing school system, triggering a discussion on the true nature of genius and sacrifice.

Wadjda (2012)

Wadjda, a ten-year-old girl living in Riyadh, desperately wants to buy a green bicycle, but in conservative Saudi society, girls are forbidden from riding bikes. To raise the money, she decides to participate in a Qur’an reading competition organized by her strict school.

This film, the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia by a female director (Haifaa al-Mansour), is an important work of social critique and female formation. The school, with its severe rules, is the place of conformity, but it also becomes the catalyst for Wadjda’s peaceful rebellion. The complex teacher-student relationship here is the struggle between the religious authority of the headmistress and the young Wadjda’s desire for freedom and alternative pedagogy.

Stand and Deliver (1988)

Based on the true story of Jaime Escalante, a math teacher who left the private sector to teach at a high-risk high school in East Los Angeles. Despite skepticism and the hostile environment, Escalante inspires his Latino students to excel in advanced calculus. His successes, however, are questioned by an external investigation.

Although it is an American-produced film, its origin as an inspirational tale based on the tenacity of an educator against an uninterested school system places it in the spirit of American independent cinema. Escalante embodies the essence of alternative pedagogy and the teacher-student relationship founded on trust and challenge, demonstrating that talent has no social class, in a context of social critique on educational disparity.

The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups) (1959)

Antoine Doinel, a twelve-year-old boy, misunderstood by his parents and often mistreated at school, seeks refuge in running away and petty delinquency. His relationship with institutions—the school and, later, juvenile detention centers—is a systematic failure, pushing him to seek freedom in the open sea.

A masterpiece of the Nouvelle Vague and European cinema (French), François Truffaut’s film is a powerful social critique of the repressive school system and family. The school is shown as a place of punishment rather than formation. The complex teacher-student relationship is nonexistent; Antoine is an outcast who seeks his alternative pedagogy in escape, leaving an indelible mark on world cinema.

Il Posto (The Job) (1961)

Domenico, a young man from the provinces, travels to Milan to seek his first job at a large company. The film follows his attempts to adapt to the monotony and bureaucracy of the office, a path of professional formation that is actually a disillusionment about adult life.

Directed by Ermanno Olmi, one of the masters of Italian neo-realism, Il Posto is a subtle yet incisive social critique of the world of work and formation into conformity. The office environment becomes the school system of adulthood, where the bosses are the masters of grayness and silence. The film explores how learning is not always liberating, but often a passive acceptance of mediocrity.

Like Stars on Earth (Taare Zameen Par) (2007)

Ishaan Awasthi, an eight-year-old boy, is labeled lazy and problematic by his parents and teachers due to his school performance. He is sent to a boarding school, where he meets Ram Shankar Nikumbh, an unconventional art teacher who realizes that Ishaan is dyslexic. Ram uses alternative pedagogy to unlock the boy’s creative and intellectual potential.

This Hindi film is an emotional exploration of the teacher-student relationship and neurodiversity within the Indian school system. Ram Nikumbh is the ideal mentor, the one who sees beyond grades and schemes. It is an ode to personalized formation and social critique against excessive academic pressure, demonstrating how art can be the key to a true education.

Timbuktu (2014)

In the city of Timbuktu, which has fallen under the control of religious fundamentalists, daily life is overturned by absurd prohibitions and cruel punishments. Among the imposed bans is that of playing football and, by extension, following a free formation. The story follows several families and their silent resistance.

This Mauritanian film, an Oscar nominee, is a heartbreaking work of social critique addressing the theme of education and oppression. The school system has been replaced by a regime of forced ignorance, but music, culture, and the desire to learn resist in the shadows. The film shows how formation and teaching become acts of alternative pedagogy and political defiance.

The Headless Woman (La mujer sin cabeza) (2008)

Verónica, a middle-aged dentist from the Argentine upper bourgeoisie, accidentally hits something on a country road, likely a child. In the following days, the woman experiences a state of amnesia and detachment, while her family tries to cover up the incident.

Argentine director Lucrecia Martel’s film does not directly deal with school, but it is a profound social critique of moral formation and class hypocrisy. Verónica’s experience is an anti-formation, a “non-learning” of ethics. The dynamic between the woman and her servants, as well as the silence of the adults, constitutes an underground lesson on the complicity and immunity of privilege.

El Bola (The Ball) (2000)

Pablo, nicknamed “El Bola” (The Ball), is a twelve-year-old boy living with a violent and abusive father, who struggles to socialize. His life changes when he befriends a new classmate, Alfredo, whose family welcomes him warmly. Alfredo’s father, a tattoo artist, becomes a mentor figure and an example of alternative pedagogy for Pablo.

This Spanish film is a powerful drama about the social realism of child abuse and formation through community. The complex teacher-student relationship shifts from the abusive father to the tattoo artist, who offers Pablo a safe refuge and teaches him dignity. The school system is just the background that allows for the encounter that will save the boy.

The Chorus (Les choristes) (2004)

Clément Mathieu, an unemployed music teacher, accepts a position as a supervisor at a boarding school for difficult and troubled boys in 1949. The environment is dominated by the director’s rigidity. Mathieu begins organizing a choir, using music as a tool for formation and redemption for the boys.

Despite its international success, this French film maintains a focus on social realism and alternative pedagogy. Music becomes the true teacher, providing the boys with a sense of discipline, beauty, and hope. The teacher-student relationship is based on listening and empathy, contrasting with the punitive school system of the time.

The Lover (L’Amante) (1992)

Set in French Indochina in the 1920s, a young French student from a poor family begins a passionate and forbidden relationship with a wealthy, older Chinese businessman. Their union is opposed by social and racial differences and the colonial environment.

Based on Marguerite Duras’s autobiographical novel, this film is an intense exploration of the forbidden relationship. Although the relationship is not strictly didactic, the man acts as a sexual and emotional mentor for the young woman, in a path of formation that is also a rebellion against her family and colonial conventions. The film is an underground work of art about eroticism and power.

Persian Lessons (2020)

During the Holocaust, in a concentration camp, Gilles, a Belgian Jew, avoids execution by swearing he is Persian. The camp commandant, Koch, wishes to learn Farsi to open a restaurant in Iran after the war. Gilles, who does not know Farsi, is forced to invent a language day after day, becoming the “teacher” of his jailer.

This European co-production film is a tense and ingenious drama on the theme of teaching as an act of survival. The complex teacher-student relationship is distorted by extreme circumstances. Gilles uses his alternative pedagogy (inventing hundreds of nonexistent words) to manipulate the makeshift school system of the camp, transforming the act of teaching into a silent, desperate resistance.

The Promise (La Promesse) (1996)

Igor, a Belgian teenager, works with his father Roger in a scheme exploiting undocumented immigrants. When one of the African workers dies in an accident, Roger forces Igor to swear he will keep secret his promise to take care of the deceased’s widow and son. The film is Igor’s moral formation, torn between paternal loyalty and ethics.

The Dardenne brothers, masters of Belgian social realism, create a raw and powerful film about moral learning. The father is a teacher-student of evil, while Igor’s complex relationship with the widow becomes his true classroom of ethics and responsibility, an example of radical social critique on the failure of institutions and human dignity.

El Norte (1983)

Rosa and Enrique, two indigenous siblings from Guatemala, flee the civil war and embark on a heartbreaking journey toward “El Norte” (the United States) in search of a better life. Their journey is an accelerated formation into the harsh lessons of survival, immigration, and disillusionment.

An Oscar nominee, this American independent cinema film (though centered on Latin America) is a powerful example of social realism. The learning here is entirely underground: the siblings learn the rules of the dirty game of illegal immigration. The school system and teachers are absent; the road and the coyotes are their mentors, in a painful alternative pedagogy of necessity.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Lee Chandler, a lonely and tormented man, is forced to return to his hometown in Massachusetts after his brother’s death to care for his adolescent nephew, Patrick. Lee must navigate the pain of his past and the responsibility of serving as Patrick’s guardian and mentor.

While not strictly a film about the school system, this two-time Oscar-winning American independent cinema drama explores involuntary mentorship and the complex teacher-student relationship between a broken adult and a teenager seeking stability. Lee is a teacher-student of resilience who doesn’t know he is one, teaching Patrick to navigate grief through mere presence and the awkwardness of unconditional love.

The Woodsman (2004)

Walter, a paroled child molester, tries to rebuild his life. He faces society’s scorn, a complex relationship with a co-worker, and especially the temptation to relapse into his obsessions, particularly when he finds himself living across the street from a school. The film explores his compulsions and his isolation.

This tense American independent cinema drama uses the environment of the school and children to examine the nature of compulsion and social judgment. Although Walter is not a teacher, the school institution and its surroundings become the center of his inner struggle and the social critique regarding rehabilitation and integration. It is an uncomfortable and necessary portrait of the shadow of the forbidden relationship lurking on the outskirts of society.

Harmony and Me (2009)

Harmony, an unfortunate songwriter, insists on wallowing in misery long after being unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend. His journey to overcome the breakup leads him to confront his art, his friends, and the obsession with his pain.

This is an example of underground American independent cinema with a strong lo-fi spirit. Although it is not a formal teacher-student relationship, Harmony’s relationship with his own art and environment becomes an unconventional path of emotional and creative formation. The film is an ironic lesson on how art can be the only true alternative pedagogy for addressing personal crises.

My Best, Your Least (2024)

The South Korean film explores the delicate and taboo complex teacher-student relationship in South Korea, in a context where a young female student finds herself facing an unexpected pregnancy and the pressures of the school system and society. The narrative focuses on the struggle for dignity and understanding in a rigid culture.

This Asian independent cinema drama tackles the theme of the forbidden relationship with a lens of social critique specific to Korean culture. Attention is placed on the weight of judgment and the desperate search for formation and emotional support that the school system is structurally incapable of providing, offering an underground look at ethical and social issues.

Io speriamo che me la cavo (1992)

Due to a Ministry error, the teacher Marco Tullio Sperelli, who had requested a transfer to northern Italy, is instead sent to Corzano, a difficult village in the province of Naples. Here he clashes with a third-grade class of very bright children left to fend for themselves and the rules of the street, forcing him to adopt an alternative pedagogy to survive and teach.

Directed by Lina Wertmüller, this film is a rare example of Italian post-neorealist social critique on the school system and the North-South divide. The teacher, played by Paolo Villaggio, acts as a catalyst for the children’s formation, but is also educated himself by their vitality and the social realism of their lives. The film celebrates a complex teacher-student relationship based on conflict and unexpected affection.