Los domingos

When Ainara announces that she wants to become a nun, chaos arises in her family. Is this a genuine desire or has she been influenced by the religious staff at her school? Or is this life-changing decision due to her father’s inattention and her mother’s absence?

Los domingos is a film about faith and religious fervour, about certainty and doubt. 17-year old Ainara lost her mother when she was a child. In keeping with family tradition, she studies at a religious school. One day, she tells her family members that she wants to spend a week in a convent: she is thinking of becoming a cloistered nun. This unexpected news destabilises them, opening up old wounds, resentments and disagreements.

Written and directed by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, Los domingos is an intelligent drama, inviting reflection and provoking discussion. With magnificent performances from the entire cast (led by debutant Blanca Soroa), the film explores the light and shadow of Ainara’s religious call – while bringing to the fore questions of tolerance, indoctrination, conformism, neglect and freedom. Superbly crafted dialogues turn Los Domingos into a complex psychological and ideological portrait of the Spanish family, the religious institution and the individual. 

– Cristina Álvarez López