{ "id": "ep5rb4je3h", "slug": "camino", "title": "Camino", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films", "label": "Biographical and historical drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2006-2009", "label": "Released 2006 to 2009", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2006-2009" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Camino (2008) is a Spanish drama by Javier Fesser, inspired by Alexia González-Barros, an Opus Dei family's dying 14-year-old; it won six Goya Awards including Best Film and sparked controversy with Opus Dei.", "snippet": "Camino (2008) is a Spanish drama by Javier Fesser, inspired by Alexia González-Barros, an Opus Dei family's dying 14-year-old; it won six Goya Awards including Best Film and sparked controversy with Opus Dei.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2006-2009", "markdown": "# Camino\n\n**Camino** is a 2008 Spanish drama film written and directed by Javier Fesser about an eleven-year-old girl who, in the space of a few months, falls in love for the first time and dies of a terminal illness.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) It was inspired by the real story of Alexia González-Barros, the youngest child of a family belonging to the [Opus Dei](https://www.edgepedia.org/opus-dei), who died in 1985 at the age of 14 and whose beatification process was open at the time of the film's release.[2](https://www.themediaprostudio.com/en/produccion/camino/) The film premiered in the Official Section of the San Sebastián Film Festival, opened in Spanish theaters on 17 October 2008, and won six [Goya Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-awards) in 2009, including Best Film.[3](https://elpais.com/cultura/2008/09/25/actualidad/1222293605_850215.html) • [4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-139143/) • [5](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/89742/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writer | Javier Fesser (Madrid, 1964), his third feature after *El milagro de P. Tinto* (1998) and *La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón* (2003)[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) • [4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-139143/) |\n| Release | Spain, 17 October 2008; later in Denmark, Hungary, Sweden, and Portugal between 2009 and 2011[4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-139143/) • [1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) |\n| Runtime | 143 minutes per Cineuropa; 138 minutes per Filmin and IMDb[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) • [6](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/camino) |\n| Cast | Nerea Camacho (Camino), Carme Elías (Gloria), Mariano Venancio (José), Manuela Vellés (Nuria), Lola Casamayor (Tía Marita)[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) • [7](https://repositoriobiblioteca.udp.cl/ST2553.pdf) |\n| Production | Mediapro and Películas Pendelton; distributed by Alta Films[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) |\n| Goya Awards 2009 | Six wins from seven nominations: Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress (Carme Elías), Best Supporting Actor (Jordi Dauder), Best New Actress (Nerea Camacho)[5](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/89742/) |\n| Real-life basis | Alexia González-Barros, died 1985 at 14 after ten months of treatment; her cause of beatification was open when the film premiered[2](https://www.themediaprostudio.com/en/produccion/camino/) • [8](https://elpais.com/diario/2008/10/18/cultura/1224280807_850215.html) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe film opens in Pamplona in June 2001, with the dying Camino surrounded by relatives, friends, priests, and medical staff in a hospital room, then moves back five months to show how her illness developed.[9](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/17/4941-camino) • [7](https://repositoriobiblioteca.udp.cl/ST2553.pdf) Camino is a girl from a middle-class family: her mother Gloria, her father José, and her older sister Nuria, a numerary (celibate lay member of Opus Dei living in its centers) of the Opus Dei.[7](https://repositoriobiblioteca.udp.cl/ST2553.pdf) At a book fair she meets Jesús, a young man from a theater group and the cousin of her best friend Begoña, and falls in love with him.[7](https://repositoriobiblioteca.udp.cl/ST2553.pdf) She wants to play the lead in a youth-theater production of *Cinderella*, a fantasy thread that runs through the film alongside her worsening condition.[10](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/child-in-spanish-cinema/angels-and-devils-embodiment-and-adolescence-in-recent-spanish-films/830F629D7E7EC5BFD29E1B7C55E47E5F)\n\nPain in her neck leads to an operation and hospitalization with no improvement, and the film follows the family through her decline.[11](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-139143/) The mother, a woman of faith regarded as an example within her Opus Dei circle, teaches Camino to face cancer as a blessing from God, while the father offers unconditional affection.[6](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/camino) • [12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/camino_2008) A priest and the prospect of a media-driven canonization process surround the dying girl, and the film presents the family, church, and hospital as institutions in which religion holds a strong position, particularly in a region like Navarra.[13](https://www.journal.eticaycine.org/Recorriendo-instituciones-analisis-del-film-Camino)\n\n## The real story and the title\n\nFesser said he had carried the story for some twenty years and came to it through a book about Alexia written by the nun María Victoria Molins, after which he undertook extensive research into other cases of apparent sanctity and the workings of the Opus Dei.[8](https://elpais.com/diario/2008/10/18/cultura/1224280807_850215.html) • [14](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20240223/camino-todo-sobre-polemica-pelicula-javier-fesser-no-gusto-opus-dei/15977746.shtml) Alexia González-Barros, the youngest of seven siblings, died in 1985 at the Clínica Universitaria de Pamplona after ten months of treatments that kept her bedridden; her religious education had been based on the ideals of the Opus Dei, and her beatification process was open at the time of the film's release.[8](https://elpais.com/diario/2008/10/18/cultura/1224280807_850215.html)\n\nThe title carries a double meaning: besides naming the protagonist, *Camino* is the title of the foundational book of the Opus Dei, written in 1934 by its founder [Josemaría Escrivá](https://www.edgepedia.org/josemaria-escriva) de Balaguer.[4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-139143/) An academic analysis notes that Fesser, out of an ethical obligation to preserve the real girl's identity, titled the film after Escrivá's book rather than using her name.[13](https://www.journal.eticaycine.org/Recorriendo-instituciones-analisis-del-film-Camino) Fesser insisted that the film is not a biography: \"Camino is not Alexia, although it is dedicated to her as the extraordinary person she was,\" and he described the film as \"not a diagnosis, but an X-ray\" of the Opus Dei.[3](https://elpais.com/cultura/2008/09/25/actualidad/1222293605_850215.html)\n\n## Reception and controversy\n\nThe film created a media stir for its critical portrayal of the Opus Dei and religious fervor around a child's death.[5](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/89742/) The Opus Dei's information office responded that the film \"offers a distorted vision of faith in God, of Christian life, and of the reality of the Opus Dei,\" a statement issued by its director Manuel Garrido, the office's spokesman in Spain.[15](https://opusdei.org/es-es/article/sobre-la-pelicula-camino/) Alexia's family did not recognize the film as based on her story.[4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-139143/)\n\n**Awards.** At the 2009 Goya ceremony in Madrid, *Camino* was the major winner, taking six of the seven Goyas for which it was nominated, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay; twelve-year-old Nerea Camacho won Best New Actress.[5](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/89742/) It also won the José María Forqué Award for Best Picture and the Gaudí Award for Best European Film, and competed for the Golden Seashell at [San Sebastián](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-sebastian) in 2008.[16](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206285/awards/) It screened at festivals including [Karlovy Vary](https://www.edgepedia.org/karlovy-vary), Vancouver, Mar del Plata, and Palm Springs.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) On review aggregators it divided critics and audiences: Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 50 percent Tomatometer from eight reviews and a 77 percent audience score, while IMDb users rated it 7.4 out of 10.[12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/camino_2008) • [17](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206285/)\n\n**Persuasion research.** The film's contested message made it the subject of an experimental study on narrative persuasion. Researchers at the [University of Salamanca](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-salamanca) randomly assigned 132 students to measure their beliefs about the Opus Dei and religion either before or after watching the film. Exposure to *Camino* induced a more negative attitude toward the Opus Dei and religion, weakened the link between participants' political self-placement and those beliefs, and identification with the protagonist played a mediating role in the persuasive effect.[18](https://produccioncientifica.usal.es/documentos/5e4fc36529995245c6b294fe)\n\n## Production\n\nThe film was produced by Mediapro with Películas Pendelton and distributed in Spain by Alta Films; its sales agent was [Goodfellas](https://www.edgepedia.org/goodfellas).[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) Alex Catalán was the cinematographer, Rafa Arnau and Mario Gosálvez wrote the music, and Fesser himself edited the film.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/) Shooting took place in Madrid, Almería, Guadalajara, Ciudad Real, and Navarra, with locations in central Madrid including the Viena Capellanes bakery on Calle Génova.[19](https://madridfilmoffice.com/en/production/camino/) • [17](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206285/) Nerea Camacho, making her film debut at twelve, was reluctant to have her hair cut for the role but accepted; Fesser cut his own hair in response.[17](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206285/)\n\n## Other films titled Camino\n\nA Costa Rican feature of the same year, *El camino* (2008), directed by Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez, is unrelated: a 91-minute drama in which Vicente, a biologist, fulfills his dream of living with his wife Abigail by the Caribbean sea, until a transnational company cancels his banana contract, his wife's half-sister Irene arrives unexpectedly, and an oil company moves into the region.[20](https://www.centrodecine.go.cr/web/producciones/camino)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Camino, film profile, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/86711/)\n2. [Camino, The Mediapro Studio (English production page)](https://www.themediaprostudio.com/en/produccion/camino/)\n3. [Fesser: \"'Camino' no es un diagnóstico del Opus Dei, es una radiografía\", El País, 25 September 2008](https://elpais.com/cultura/2008/09/25/actualidad/1222293605_850215.html)\n4. [Camino, película 2008, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-139143/)\n5. [Camino's resounding triumph at Goyas, Cineuropa, 2 February 2009](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/89742/)\n6. [Camino, Filmin](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/camino)\n7. [Universidad Diego Portales thesis with technical sheet and plot summary of Camino](https://repositoriobiblioteca.udp.cl/ST2553.pdf)\n8. [\"Hay actitudes que no entiendo; ven el dolor como algo redentor\", El País interview with Javier Fesser, 18 October 2008](https://elpais.com/diario/2008/10/18/cultura/1224280807_850215.html)\n9. [Camino, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival archive](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/17/4941-camino)\n10. [Angels and devils: Embodiment and adolescence in recent Spanish films, The Child in Spanish Cinema, Cambridge University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/child-in-spanish-cinema/angels-and-devils-embodiment-and-adolescence-in-recent-spanish-films/830F629D7E7EC5BFD29E1B7C55E47E5F)\n11. [Camino, SensaCine México](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-139143/)\n12. [Camino (2008), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/camino_2008)\n13. [Recorriendo instituciones: análisis del film Camino, Journal de Ética y Cine, Vol. 8 No. 1, March 2018](https://www.journal.eticaycine.org/Recorriendo-instituciones-analisis-del-film-Camino)\n14. ['Camino': Todo sobre la polémica película de Javier Fesser que no gustó al Opus Dei, RTVE, 23 February 2024](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20240223/camino-todo-sobre-polemica-pelicula-javier-fesser-no-gusto-opus-dei/15977746.shtml)\n15. [Sobre la película \"Camino\", Opus Dei, 4 February 2009](https://opusdei.org/es-es/article/sobre-la-pelicula-camino/)\n16. [Camino (2008), Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206285/awards/)\n17. [Camino (2008), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206285/)\n18. [Persuasión a través del cine. Un estudio experimental sobre la recepción e impacto de la película \"Camino\", Universidad de Salamanca](https://produccioncientifica.usal.es/documentos/5e4fc36529995245c6b294fe)\n19. [Camino, Madrid Film Office](https://madridfilmoffice.com/en/production/camino/)\n20. [El camino, Centro Costarricense de Producción Cinematográfica](https://www.centrodecine.go.cr/web/producciones/camino)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2006 to 2009*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/camino", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/camino.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Camino\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/camino. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Camino](https://www.edgepedia.org/camino)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/camino](https://www.edgepedia.org/camino). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Camino\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/camino. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Camino is a Spanish drama by Javier Fesser, inspired by Alexia González-Barros, an Opus Dei family's dying 14-year-old; it won six Goya Awards including Best Film and sparked controversy with Opus Dei." }