PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain / France
Alauda Ruiz de Azúa directing Los Domingos
- The Basque helmer has cast Patricia López Arnaiz, Miguel Garcés, Juan Minujín, Mabel Rivera, Nagore Aramburu and newcomer Blanca Soroa in her new feature
Los Domingos (lit. “Sundays”), the new film by Basque director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, is currently being shot in Biscay. It comes on the heels of Lullaby [+see also:
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interview: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
film profile] (which picked up the Goya Award for Best New Director and was victorious at the Málaga Film Festival after screening in the Panorama section of the Berlinale), the Netflix romantic comedy Love at First Kiss and the magnificent, multi-award-winning Movistar Plus+ series Querer [+see also:
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interview: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
series profile], which was presented at the most recent edition of San Sebastián.
Los Domingos stars newcomer Blanca Soroa, Patricia López Arnaiz (Goya Award for Best Actress for Ane Is Missing [+see also:
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interview: David Pérez Sañudo
film profile] and nominated two further times, most recently for Glimmers [+see also:
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interview: Pilar Palomero
film profile], for which she took home the Silver Shell from San Sebastián), Miguel Garcés (20,000 Species of Bees [+see also:
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interview: Estíbaliz Urresola
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film profile], recently appearing in the series Rapa [+see also:
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series profile]) and Nagore Aramburu (who is working with the Basque filmmaker once again after her award-winning turn in Querer).
The movie introduces us to Ainara (played by Blanca Soroa), a young, gifted and idealistic 17-year-old, who has to decide which subject to study at university. Or at least that’s what her family hopes she will do. However, the girl reveals the fact that she feels increasingly close to God and that she is prepared to embrace the life of a cloistered nun. This bombshell takes the whole family by surprise, causing a rift and constituting a litmus test for them all.
Alauda Ruiz de Azúa states: “Years ago, I heard this story involving the family of some friends of mine: a girl from a religious family, more in social terms than spiritual ones, had decided to join an enclosed religious order. For years, I wondered: ‘Why would an 18-year-old girl become a cloistered nun in today’s world?’ This screenplay was born of that question.” She continues: “The film is a story constructed through two points of view: that of Ainara, who seems to be fleeing the world, and that of her aunt Maite [played by Patricia López Arnaiz], who wishes to convince her niece, or herself, that the world is worth the effort. The movie ponders dilemmas and questions that have difficult answers. The viewer will have to navigate between those questions and conflicts portrayed through the eyes of the two protagonists.”
Guillermo Farré, head of the Original Film and Spanish Film department of Movistar Plus+, opined: “Following the success of the series Querer, we are delighted to be working with Alauda again, as Los Domingos boasts one of the best scripts we have read in a long time, and we are certain that it will be a great film, given that it comes from one of the biggest talents to have emerged in Spanish cinema in the last few years, and is shored up by some excellent co-production partners in Spain and France.”
Los Domingos is a co-production by Spain’s Buenapinta Media, Encanta Films, Sayaka Producciones, Think Studio, Colosé Producciones, Los Desencuentros Película AIE and Movistar Plus+ together with France’s Le Pacte, which has secured funding from the ICAA. Its international sales are also handled by Le Pacte. Bteam Pictures will release it in Spanish theatres ahead of its exclusive airing on the Movistar Plus+ platform.
(Translated from Spanish)
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