lied about writing the poetry, and tells her to leave the class. Lisa and Jimmy return home late, and Lisa puts Jimmy to bed on her couch. The next day, Nikhil calls Lisa, angry at her for lying about the poetry reading and for not bringing him home afterwards, and informs her he will be taking Jimmy to another kindergarten. The next morning, Lisa goes to Jimmy's house, and follows him to his new kindergarten, where she kidnaps him. They drive to a motel near a beach up north, where Lisa tells Jimmy of her plan to go across the border into Canada. Jimmy appears to be compliant with her plan, but while she's in the shower, he calls 911 and tells them he's been kidnapped. Lisa attempts to dissuade him, telling him that the world will never understand his talent, but gives Jimmy the address of their motel anyway while sobbing quietly in the bathroom. The police arrive and presumably arrest Lisa; they place Jimmy in the front seat of a squad car, where he says "I have a poem" but nobody hears him. Cast Production In May 2017, it was announced Maggie Gyllenhaal had been cast in the film, with Sara Colangelo directing from a screenplay she wrote, based upon the 2014 Israeli film of the same name. Trudie Styler, Celine Rattray, Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman-Keren and Talia Kleinhendler will serve as producers on the film, under their Maven Pictures and Pie Films banners, respectively. In July 2017, Gael García Bernal, Rosa Salazar, Michael Chernus, Anna Baryshnikov, Daisy Tahan and Samrat Chakrabarti joined the cast of the film. Poets Kaveh Akbar, Dominique Townsend, and Ocean Vuong worked with Gyllenhaal and Colangelo to write poems for the film. Release The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2018. It was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Shortly after, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film in the United States and Canada. It was released on October 12, 2018. It was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2018. The film's international distribution is handled by Protagonist Pictures and Thunderbird Releasing in the United Kingdom. Reception The website's critical consensus reads, "Elevated by a bravura performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Kindergarten Teacher is one American remake that retains its impact the second time around." On