Mondays in the Sun is a 2002 Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 directed by Fernando León de Aranoa

Fernando León de Aranoa

Fernando León de Aranoa is an award-winning Spanish screenwriter and film director.He was noted for always saying his greatest work wouldn't come from his hands or mind but from his name. A new Fernando Leon of the 21st century would detail this masterpiece...

 and starring Javier Bardem

Javier Bardem

Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor. In 2007 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as sociopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and has also garnered critical acclaim for roles in films such as Jamón, jamón, Carne trémula, Boca a boca, Los...

. The film depicts the degrading effects of unemployment on a group of men left jobless by the closure of the shipyards in Vigo

Vigo

Vigo is a city and municipality in north-west Spain, in Galicia, situated on the ria of the same name on the Atlantic Ocean.-Population:...

, Galicia.

Plot

After the closure of their shipyard in Northern Spain, a few former workers: Santa, José, Lino, Amador, Sergei and Reina keep in touch. They meet mainly at a bar owned by their former colleague Rico. Santa is the most superficially confident and the unofficial leader of the group. A court case hangs over him relating to a shipyard lamp he smashed during protest against the closure. José is bitter that his wife, Ana, is employed when he is not. The gap between them is widening and he is fearful that she will leave him for a co-worker. Despite arthritic legs, Ana endures night shifts at a fish factory and thinks her looks are now lost. Not everyone seems to agree including her boss. Lino, an aging family man doggedly pursuing positions beyond his qualifications. The oldest member of the group, Amador, has degenerated into alcoholism after being abandoned by his wife; maintaining an increasingly transparent pretense that his wife will soon return from holiday. Reina has managed to find a job as a watchman at a football club, smuggling his friends into a game. Lino attends job interviews despite applicants being nearer his son's age. Sergei claims his career as an astronaut was forestall by economic measures in the Soviet Space program.

The group of friends are observed by Nata, the landlords teenage daughter. She franchises her baby sitting job to Santa. The men also like relaxing by the sea where Santa dreams of going to Australia. Amador dies. His friends give him a dignified funeral albeit with a stolen floral arrangement. Lino eventually acknowledges his unemployability. Ana more from pity than love, remains with José. Santa pays the fine rather than go to jail. On his way, he smashes the same lamp.

Cast

• Javier Bardem
  Javier Bardem
  Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor. In 2007 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as sociopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and has also garnered critical acclaim for roles in films such as Jamón, jamón, Carne trémula, Boca a boca, Los...
  
   as Santa
• Luis Tosar
  Luis Tosar
  Luis Tosar is a Galician actor and musician.-Biography:Born in Lugo, Galicia, Spain on 13th October 1971, he is best known internationally for his villain role in Miami Vice and the role in the upcoming horror film Flatmate, which is directed by Jaume Balagueró.-Selected filmography:*1998 Atilano...
  
   as José
• José Ángel Egido as Lino
• Nieve de Medina as Ana
• Enrique Villén as Reina
• Celso Bugallo as Amador
• Joaquín Climent as Rico
• Aida Folch as Nata
• Fernando Tejero
  Fernando Tejero
  Fernando Tejero Muñoz-Torrero is a Spanish actor who spent his childhood and adolescence in Córdoba, Andalucía.Since he was very young, Tejero knew he wanted to be an actor. However his father wanted Tejero to become a bullfighter...
  
   as Lázaro
• Laura Domínguez as Ángela

DVD release

Mondays in the Sun is available on DVD. It was released in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and in the USA. The film is in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 with English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 subtitles.

Awards

The film won five Goya Awards

Goya Awards

The Goya Awards, known in Spanish as los Premios Goya, are Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards....

 in 2003, including awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Lead Actor.
It was also chosen by the Real Academia de Cine Español as Spain's pick for the 2003 Academy Awards over Almodóvar's Talk to her

Talk to Her

Talk to Her is a 2002 Spanish comedy-drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosario Flores...

.

External links