De Jueves a Domingo
Director: Dominga Sotomayor
Writer: Dominga Sotomayor
Cast: Santi Ahumada, Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Paola Giannini, Emiliano Freifeld, Axel Dupré, Jorge Becker
Seen on: 29./30.8.2025

Plot:
Lucía (Santi Ahumada) goes on a short road trip with her parents Fernando and Ana (Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Paolo Giannini) and her brother Manuel (Emiliano Freifeld). The longer the family is on the road, the more Lucía picks up on the tension between her parents. Are they just fighting or is there something more going on?

De Jueves a Domingo doesn’t really cover new territory or covers the old territory in a very innovative way. But it is confident and assured, especially for a debut, allowing us to look at the world through Lucía’s eyes and share in her uncertainties.

De Jueves a Domingo follows in the footsteps of a good many independent coming-of-age films. Grainy camera, little dialogue, a lot of the most important stuff overheard and observed, not necessarily understood, a child watching their parents‘ marriage dissolve or at least in trouble. We have probably all seen movies like it.

But that doesn’t mean that it is not a good film, or that it doesn’t tell us anything true. Sotomayor has a good handle on her characters, as does the cast. They all have a deft hand at making the little things and gestures, the glances count as the story unfolds. It is a remarkable accomplishment, especially for a debut, and shows the care that went into the film.

My favorite scene of the film remains the very first one. In the breaking light of dawn, we see the parents pack the car, including packing the sleeping children into the care. The camera perspective comes from inside the house, waiting to be packed as well. It is a scene reminiscent of my own childhood car trips, and has this almost dreamlike quality that sets the atmospheric stage for the rest of the movie.

I was a little taken out of the film because the children spent most of the drive without a seatbelt in the back, partly even in the trunk. I am unsure whether the film is set in 2012 or earlier, at a time where seatbeltless driving was more common (it has this unmoored, timeless feeling); or if it is a question of culture, but I couldn’t really look past it. But that is on me, and not the film. Still, it may have contributed to a feeling of distance that kept me from really falling into the film as I would have liked.

Summarizing: a very good debut.