Gael Garcia Bernal is headed back to elementary school…

The 38-year-old Mexican actor has joined the cast of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s drama The Kindergarten Teacher, according to Variety.

Maven Pictures is producing the film, based on Nadav Lapid’s Israeli film of the same name.

Sara Colangelo is directing from her own adapted screenplay in which a kindergarten teacher who grows more and more numb each day she remains stuck in her mundane Staten Island life.

When she discovers what may be a prodigious five-year old poet in her class, she becomes obsessed with the child and his talent– risking her career, family, and freedom.

Garcia Bernal joins a list of new cast additions that includes Rosa Salazar, Michael Chernus, Anna Baryshnikov, Daisy Tahan, Samrat Chakrabarti and Ajay Naidu.

Filming is starting on July 12 in New York.

Bernal’s credits include The Motorcycle Diaries and Mozart in the Jungle.

Salazar is the lead in the upcoming Alita: Battle Angel.

The original Israeli film won the Grand Prize and $20,000 at the new talent competition at the 2015 Taipei Film Festival.