Schoolgirls (2020)
Las niñas
Film details
Drama · Pilar Palomero · 1h 37min
Synopsis
In early 1990s Spain, eleven-year-old Celia lives with her mother and studies at a convent school in Zaragoza. When Brisa, a confident new classmate from Barcelona, arrives, Celia is drawn into a world that challenges the strict religious teachings and sheltered life she has known. Their friendship pushes her to confront hidden truths at home and the uncertainties of adolescence, leading her to explore questions of identity, independence, and belonging.
Verdict
Honest personal growth in a convent school, without alerts.
In-depth analysis
The film follows Celia, an eleven-year-old girl in Zaragoza in 1992, as she transitions into adolescence, propelled by her new friend Brisa. The convent school functions as a stable framework, offering clear moral references without the story devolving into a pamphlet. The central conflict is the discovery that reality contains both truths and lies, a theme handled with naturalness and without forcing ideological conclusions. The setting of the Expo and the Olympics places the narrative in a specific historical moment, yet the focus remains on the protagonist's personal experience. There are no elements of violence, sexual content, or inappropriate language. The presence of religious life appears as part of the everyday environment, neither ridiculed nor artificially exalted. The result is a coming-of-age story that respects a child's pace and values family and school order as a protective context. Parents will find a serene narrative about the transition to adolescence that invites conversation about honesty and discernment without introducing anthropological confusions.