Mondays in the Sun

Mondays in the Sun is a 2002 drama film directed by Fernando León de Aranoa, starring Javier Bardem, Luis Tosar and José Ángel Egido. The film depicts the degrading effects of unemployment on a group of men left jobless by the closure of the shipyards in Vigo, Galicia. It was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 75th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. Plot After the closure of their shipyard in Northern Spain, a few former workers – Santa, José, Lino, Amador, Serguei 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, who dreams of one day going to Australia. A court case hangs over him that concerns a shipyard street lamp he smashed during a protest against the closure, which he claims to not want to pay, not because of the financial cost but of what it stands for. José is bitter that his wife, Ana, is employed while 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 pursues 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 near his son's age. This group of friends is observed by Nata, the landlord's teenage daughter who franchises her babysitting job to Santa. While babysitting, Santa invites his friends around to have a few beers outside where Serguei claims his career as an astronaut was forestalled by economic measures in the Soviet Space program. One night at the bar, Amador drinks too much and has to be assisted home by Santa, the two of whom share a long and meaningful conversation on the way back. As a result of his drunken state and the newly deepened friendship, Amador, who has never allowed any of the group to go inside his 4th floor apartment, lets Santa in to help him upstairs.