A 17-year-old is supposed to be thinking about university. But Ainara has a different life in mind: she feels close to God and is considering entering a convent. This comes as a surprise to her family. What begins as a decision about her own future becomes a conflict over who should have a say in it at all – and on what grounds.
“Glaube” opens in cinemas across Germany on 29 October. In her second feature film, Spanish director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa explores a religious vocation without reducing the question to a simple opposition between free will and family pressure. Family can mean protection and belonging, but it can also impose expectations that prevent a young person from finding their own way.
A vocation no one knows how to understand
Ainara, played by Blanca Soroa, is not an outsider turning her back on the world. She attends a Catholic school, sings in the choir and leads an everyday life that will probably be familiar to many of her peers. The fact that she also feels drawn to religious life upends her relatives’ assumptions. Her aunt Maite, played by Patricia López Arnaiz, is particularly convinced that the plan is wrong and wants to change Ainara’s mind. According to the distributor’s synopsis, her father Iñaki initially remains somewhat detached.
The film thus offers no comfortable certainties: the family’s concern need not simply be a matter of control; it may stem from affection. At the same time, affection is not a licence to dictate another person’s life. Precisely because Ainara is still a minor, the question becomes urgent: how seriously can her decision be taken without overlooking possible influences from her family or religious surroundings? The film sustains this tension rather than resolving it with a hasty judgement.
Family as the setting for conflict
Ruiz de Azúa once again turns her attention to the family as an institution: to intimacy, dependence and the effort involved in turning close bonds into a place of safety. In her feature debut “Cinco lobitos” (international title: “Lullaby”), she focused on motherhood and the passing on of family responsibilities; with the series “Querer”, she examined a marriage and its power dynamics. “Glaube” takes this exploration into a different sphere: a religious decision exposes how quickly care can turn into persuasion.
The German release title directs attention towards faith. The original title, “Los domingos” – “Sundays” – evokes both the day of worship and the day when families gather. Director Ruiz de Azúa has described Sundays as an occasion when very different people come together, sometimes out of a sense of duty. The film thus brings two possible forms of belonging into contact: ties to family and the search for a religious community.
No judgement from outside
The film premiered at the San Sebastián festival in 2025, where it won the Golden Shell for Best Film. This makes “Glaube” one of the director’s internationally recognised works, though that alone cannot determine a judgement of the film. What is initially compelling is the question raised by its premise: is Ainara’s wish heard as an expression of her own convictions – or primarily as a problem that others want to solve for her?
A film can pose this question, but it cannot answer it on the teenager’s behalf. As it opens in German cinemas on 29 October, “Glaube” places centre stage a conflict that extends beyond religious vocation: how adults can support young people without taking the decision out of their hands.
Original reviewed by the editors · 26 October 2026
