Cinema

To the nuns who taught us

Patricio Sánchez-Jáuregui-November 3, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
full of grace

Film

Title: Full of grace
DirectorRoberto Bueso
HistoryRoberto Bueso and Óscar Díaz
MusicVicente Ortiz Gimeno
Year: 2022

On December 20, 2004, in an Osasuna - Mallorca match, Valdo Lopes scored a goal and ran to camera to dedicate it. Written on the newly unveiled undershirt, it read: "Thank you, sister Marina". This film tells the story of that thanks, of Valdo and his teammates, when they were barely an inch off the ground. At that time they lived in the Caritas charity house in Aravaca, run by the order of the Slaves, where Sister Marina arrived to change their lives.

It was in the summer of 1994, when the eclectic, lively nun with a heart of gold arrived at the school in El Parral. She had to gain the respect of the rascals who, with no other place to go, would spend the vacation months doing their business. To this will be added the threat of closure of the institution, and from this will come an idea: to promote the school with a soccer team and thus save the school and the lives of its students.

Spinning comedy and emotionality, Full of grace is Roberto Bueso's second feature film. (The band)which has a well-stocked cartel: Carmen Machi (Aida, Talk to her) at the helm, seconded by a charming, idealistic and innocent novice, Paula Usero (Rosa's wedding)Nuria Gonzalez (Mataharis) of mother superior, Anis Doroftei (Charlie Contryman) as Sister Cook and Pablo Chiapella (La que se avecina) as a janitor. The cast is completed by a group of colorful children, who add, with their freshness and tenderness, even more authenticity to a film that is tremendously enjoyable.

With its pluses and minuses, this is a play in which it is as easy to cry as it is to laugh, which oozes tenderness and brings to the forefront the value of dedication, friendship and education. Despite ignoring the motivation of the protagonists and anything related to the contemplative life, it turns El Parral school, and perhaps all nuns' schools, into a home: a symbol of charity. The whole coming-of-age story of the protagonists becomes a dedication, like the one Valdo Lopes wore on his T-shirt: a love letter to all those nuns who have raised us, condensed in the phrase of one of the sisters: "We are not your mothers, nor are we your caregivers... We are your nuns, which is already a lot".

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