Behavior a 2014 Cuban Drama

Chala is eleven years old and lives alone with his drug addict mother. He trains fighting dogs for a living, and this world of violence sometimes surfaces when he is at school. Carmela is his sixth grade teacher, for whom the boy feels affection and respect. One day she becomes ill and musts give up the school for several months. The new teacher, unable to understand Chala’s behavior, sends him off to a reeducation school. When Carmela returns, she rebels against this measure and other transformations her class has been subjected to. The relationship between the veteran teacher and the boy grows stronger, but this mutual commitment will jeopardize their continuance at the school.

Behavior (Spanish: Conducta) is a 2014 Cuban drama film directed by Ernesto Daranas. In English writing, the film is usually referred to by the title Behavior. The film premiered in February 2014, and then played at the Málaga Film Festival before having its US premieres simultaneously at the Chicago Latino Film Festival and Havana Film Festival New York in April 2014. Behavior was then screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.  It was selected as the Cuban entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

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