Shortly after filming with Laia Costa his Thin opera Five Little Wolves, director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Barakaldo, 1978) met with her producers to discuss new projects and explained that she wanted to explore the theme of religious vocation. She is not a believer, but when she was young, she met another girl who felt God's calling. "For me, having a secular upbringing, I found it fascinating and mysterious that someone could make a decision like this based on faith," she explains. The result of that interest has ended up taking shape in one of the season's films, the Catalan co-production Sundays, which arrives in theaters this Friday with the claim of the Golden Shell won at the recent San Sebastian Festival.

I am writing these lines the day after it was made public the cover of Rosalía's new albumwhere she appears dressed in what looks like a nun's habit. The coincidence of this possible shift towards spirituality with the premiere of Alauda Ruiz de Azúa's third and remarkable feature film is curious (Five little wolves), winner of the Golden Shell at San Sebastián. Ainara, a teenager (Blanca Soroa, a true revelation), tells her well-to-do family that she wants to become a cloistered nun. Tensions flare and opposing viewpoints clash: on one side is the widowed father, unable to care for his three daughters; on the other, the aunt (Patricia López Arnaiz, a whirlwind), who, by stubbornly trying to change her niece's mind, ends up undermining her initial role as the voice of reason.

In his first film, Five little wolves, and in the series that premiered last year, Fly, Basque filmmaker Alauda Ruiz de Azúa touched on burning issues (the critical examination of motherhood, gender violence) that demonstrated her ability to engage with current societal concerns through film. But in the Catalan co-production Sundays It addresses an issue that is not part of the public debate, and in a way that moves away from the conventions of social cinema, which is often more concerned with conveying an ideological position than exploring the complexity and contradictions of reality.