Alauda Ruiz de Azúa quickly became one of the most beloved and prolific filmmakers in Spain with credits like Lullaby (2022) and To want (2024). And she returns this year with a new project, her fourth in three years, entitled Sundays (Sundays)Who makes his debut this evening at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Once again turned in his native bilbao, the film is an ingenious exploration of religion and its position in Spanish life. The intrigue follows the story of Ainara, an intelligent 17 -year -old woman who tries to decide what to study at university. However, the young woman begins to feel a call from God and decides to embrace the life of a cloistered nun. The news takes her whole family by surprise, creating a abyss and putting everyone to the test.
Alauda was not raised in the Catholic Church, therefore this story, unlike Lullaby, Do not be inspired by Alauda’s life.
“My education was secular. It was like a completely different world,” said Alauda before his trip to San Sebastian.
The film was rather inspired by the life of a young Spanish that Alauda observed many years ago, who left her family for a monastery.
“At that time, I was very young, and it was a mystery to me why someone would do something like that,” she said, adding that she had returned to her memory after turning her debut Lullaby And managed to build a fictitious story that could work for the big screen.
Copyright: David Herranz
“I discovered the approach to talk about this story, and that involved the family,” said Alauda. “It’s not just girls’ journey, but how does a family deal with something like that in the moment. I knew it would be an interesting approach. ”
The film is led by Blanca Soroa, who plays Ainara. His performance is subtle and nuanced, which offers the film a deep air of mystery which maintains the engaged spectator and raises the dramatic issues while religion takes an increasing taking on the life of Ainara. Amazing, Sunday is the first performance on the Soroa screen. Alauda says that she and her team searched real convents and religious schools for their Ainara before landing on Soroa.
“It is a particular profile, you know, a girl cultivated by a middle -class family. When we finally saw Blanca, we fell in love with her because she has such cinematographic qualities. Everything is in her face,” said Alauda about her main actress. “You look at her, and it acts something religious in you.”
Curiously, for a history on religion, in Spain, a country known for its vibrant and dramatic approach to Catholicism, Sunday is visually silent, shaped by the measured movement of the camera and the monochrome colors. Alauda says it was a deliberate choice.
“The tension of the film is built on two very different and extreme points of view. So I wanted to treat each character as equal. This is why the camera is so sober,” says Alauda. “This creates a distance that allows the spectator to judge for themselves.”
Sunday Will be one of the most prominent Spanish titles in San Sebastian, partly because of its subject, but also as a centerpiece of the local and giant moistar plus +production room. Alauda worked with the company on her 2024 series To want.
“They have done an incredible job in recent years,” said Alauda about streamer. “They are not afraid to take risks, and when they bet on your project, they protect it and you. It was really a pleasure to work with them. ”
Alauda is now, alongside filmmakers like Carla Simón and Oliver Laxe, who also have new films in San Sebastian, among the leaders of a new dynamic generation of Spanish international filmmakers. It comes with a new level of control.
“It’s different when nobody knows who you are and you are alone in your room,” she said. “But all these things happened to me in the forties, so I have a different perspective.”
She adds: “I knew I wanted it to happen for a very long time, so I had time to think about reason. And why I like stories. I love going to places that are sometimes uncomfortable, where I have questions. So I know my way. And I just try to protect this.”
With her increased profile, I ask Alauda if she plans to leave Spain and work internationally. (In 2023, she directed the romantic film in Spanish language Are you for Netflix). His answer was resolved.
“For me, it depends on the project. I’m not going to become international for good, ”she says. “I am in a privileged position at the moment, because I can choose what I do. I can go to places with a project, and they will listen to me. It is a very privileged position. But I also think that there is a responsibility to really believe in what I do. It all depends on the project and history. “
Sunday Beginning this evening in San Sebastian. Film products are Marisa Fernández Armerteros, Sandra Hermida, Manu Calvo and Nakive. San Sebastian takes place until September 27.
