After Lullaby [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
fiche film] put Bilbao filmmaker Alauda Ruiz de Azua on the cinematic map, and the series Querer [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
fiche série] catapulted her at last year’s San Sebastián International Film Festival, she now returns to the same festival, this time in competition, with her new feature film Sundays [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
fiche film]. We spoke with her about it in this interview.

Cineuropa: Not much time has passed between your previous series and the release of your latest film.
Alauda Ruiz de Azúa: The project has been in development for quite a while, though it coincided with Querer. It began after filming Lullaby. I had a conversation with the producers, who asked if I had another story in mind. I told them that they might think it was crazy, I’d long been intrigued by this idea I first heard as a young girl: a girl wanted to become a nun and it was tearing her family apart. The premise stayed with me for a long time, but it has been developed gradually over the last few years.

How did they react to a topic that is out of fashion?
It was great because we talked about what we would do in such a situation and what it would be like today. We spent a long time debating how a family would deal with something so radical. So it didn't take much to convince them. I was also lucky that the series Querer came along and that Movistar Plus+ also took an interest in the film. Everyone saw that this was an interesting topic.

Family is a major common theme in your filmography: a space where we grow up, but which also sometimes complicates our lives...
Here the film speaks about the fragility of the family, questioning the institution itself. There’s a social narrative that has been constructed and is strongly entrenched about the family: it must be a refuge, with its support and where you must be loved. But that's not always the case. And I wondered: When do you discover this? Perhaps at 16 or 17, when you start to become more mature and see your parents differently.

Adolescence is not easy for adults to understand.
What I really enjoyed about this project was being in contact with people of that age: rediscovering the incoherence of going out partying and first loves. But at that stage in life, there is also the feeling of a certain existential emptiness and anxiety about stepping into the adult world without any experience. I’ve tried to convey this by giving the female protagonist all that complexity: she enjoys going out partying and dancing with her friends, but she has an anxiety that drives her toward something more spiritual.

Accepting other people's decisions is never easy.
Yes, it's very hard. The character of the protagonist's aunt tries to approach tolerance with honesty. We all think of ourselves as tolerant or like to think that we are respectful of other people's lives, because we want others to be tolerant of everything about us. But sometimes that’s just a façade. When the conflict takes place in our own home, with people we love, we find it much harder to be tolerant. And I wondered if we have to tolerate everything too. It’s difficult to reach a point where you can decide that you will not tolerate something and explain why. I thought it would be interesting to pose that question to the viewer. Genuine tolerance is very complicated, but it must always be accompanied by ethical reflection on things.

Throughout the film, the mystery and doubt lingers about whether the young protagonist will ultimately become a nun...
I wanted to build the film’s tension around whether this vocation is genuine, supernatural and authentic, or whether it is somehow constructed, pushed or influenced by the adult world, be it family or religion. But that’s what the viewer has to navigate: wondering how someone can come to feel that way. I like films that don't push me around, that don't shout at me with a megaphone, but give me space to think. I do believe that Sundays takes a critical look at family and religion, with situations that are not easy to judge, but the film aims to give the viewer room to think for themselves.