Sundays [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] is certainly (and with no intention of punning, heaven forbid) nothing short of miraculous. How can such an apparently unattractive premise (a teenager announcing to her family her wish to become a cloistered nun) result in a film that seizes the viewer from the opening frames and refuses to let go until the final credits? The answer lies with its director and screenwriter, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, who here confirms her status as a filmmaker of formidable talent. With this feature film – at times a drama, at others almost a comedy – she competes for the Golden Shell (with a good chance of winning it) in the official section of the 73rd San Sebastián Film Festival.

Those already captivated by the conflicts explored in her previous works, Lullaby [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
fiche film] and the superb series Querer [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
fiche série], know that Ruiz de Azúa is not to be taken lightly. She always strikes precisely where it hurts, posing questions and raising many doubts in the viewer's mind.

Something similar happens in Sundays: the audience is both spellbound and unsettled. They are drawn in, put on the spot and simultaneously enchanted by characters, situations and brilliant dialogues that are perfectly coherent and recognisable. At its core, this is a story of family and its fractures—the cracks through which intolerance, selfishness, and disrespect for other people's decisions seep, however strange those choices may seem.

All of this stems from the story outlined above: Ainara (played by newcomer Blanca Soroa, one of the season’s most compelling discoveries), a girl from a respectable Basque family, informs her widowed father (Miguel Garcés) that she intends to spend time with cloistered nuns (led by Nagore Aranburu) to confirm if she truly wants to follow the path of faith. The news spreads like wildfire through the family, who gather every Sunday for lunch at the paternal grandmother's (Mabel Rivera) house. The result is a huge commotion: how are you going to leave your comfortable modern life, just as you are about to start university... to go and pray in a convent? But the shockwave of this bombshell particularly affects Aunt Maite (played by Patricia López Arnaiz), an active, intelligent, feisty and supposedly tolerant woman whose seemingly perfect life is shaken by this conflict. Thus, niece and aunt emerge as both protagonists and antagonists in a plot where no one is quite as saintly as they appear.

Sundays is an original Movistar Plus+ film by Buenapinta Media, Colosé Producciones, Sayaka Producciones, Encanta Films, Think Studio, Los Desencuentros Película A.I.E. and Movistar Plus+ in association with the French company Le Pacte, which will also handle its international sales. BTeam Pictures will release it in Spanish cinemas on 24 October.