In Sundays, also known by its Spanish title Los Domingos, a young woman faces personal crossroads while exploring career possibilities, much to her family’s concern. Source: Australian Catholics.
I found this a thoughtful film and could understand Ainara (Soroa) and her emotional state as she considers a vocation rather than attending university.
In a sensitively acted role, the 17-year-old makes it plain that she would like to go through a discernment process. She needs her father Inaki’s (Garcés) approval and initially he thinks it’s simply a distraction.
Her atheist aunt, Maite, (Lopez Arnaiz) is passionately against it and wants her to savour all of life’s experiences, fearing that she is cutting herself off from the world.
The title suggests that Sunday is the day the extended family comes together, when tensions and disclosures can emerge.
We watch the family’s domestic life, mainly through meals, where much of the film takes place. Ainara’s mother is dead; her father is busy running a restaurant and it appears that she feels most spiritually at home in the convent.
Her love of God is plain to see, especially when she asks for help kneeling at the altar. She is a normal teenage girl, has friends, likes a boy, but clearly has different priorities than her peers.
As the Prioress, Mother Isabel (Aranburu) is serene and deliberate, wanting to guide Ainara without coercively pushing her into making a decision about her vocation.
Aizpuru as Hermana Incarnacion (Sister Incarnation) reminded me of all those wise older women who have given their lives to God and who smile with a tenderness and understanding of the cloistered life, its joys and challenges.
The young priest (Sainz) Padre Txema explains to Ainara his feeling of inexplicable joy and rightness in his relationship with God.
As the film suggests, faith is a gift. Ainara knows what she wants and that is to be in constant companionship with God. This bears some similarity to the story of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower, who entered the enclosed Carmelite Order at 16.
I was encouraged that a film like this is being made and seen as it brings conversations about faith and life into the public square and that is healthy for growth and review. Recommended.
Review by Ann Rennie, Jesuit Media
Sundays (Los Domingos): Starring Blanca Soroa, Patricia López Arnaiz, Miguel Garcés, Nagore Aranburu, Itziar Aizpuru, Victor Sainz. Directed by Alauda Ruiz de Asua. 118 minutes. Rated M (coarse language).
FULL REVIEW
Sundays (Los Domingos) (Australian Catholics)
