The docuseries, produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO for Max in Spain, has been created and directed by journalist Mònica Terribas. Max will premiere the documentary on Friday, 7 February, that will be available in the United States, Latin America and Europe.
Thirteen women from different parts of Spain, Latin America, Ireland and the United Kingdom give direct testimony of their life in Opus Dei and their subsequent break with the institution, in the first documentary series that deals with the subject from an unprecedented point of view and with exhaustive research.
The documentary also includes the participation of the British investigative journalist Gareth Gore, author of Opus (Editorial Crítica), the Financial Times journalist Antonia Cundy, the psychologists Laura Merino y Vega González, managing director of the Socioaddiction Assistance and Research Centre, and the lawyer Sebastián Sal, among others.
Max debuts on Friday, 7 February THE HEROIC MINUTE: I LEFT OPUS DEI, which will be available in the United States, Latin America and Europe. This documentary series of four, 50-minute episodes produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO for Max in Spain, has been created and directed by Mònica Terribas. A journalist with an extensive professional career in radio and television, as well as in public media in Catalonia, Terribas has carried out an exhaustive investigation on Opus Dei that approaches the subject from an unprecedented point of view.
THE HEROIC MINUTE: I LEFT OPUS DEI narrates, through their own direct testimonies, the lives of thirteen women from different backgrounds, countries, generations and with no links between them, who experienced first-hand the challenges and realities of Opus Dei serving as numeraries, auxiliary numeraries or aggregates. Women who report feeling subjugated to abusive treatment at work, psychologically and spiritually, from which they decided to leave and which they now dare to tell.
The documentary also incorporates the voices of knowledgeable professionals, including journalists, psychologists, lawyers and other experts in the field, who provide context both on Opus Dei and on the life experiences narrated in the series: investigative journalist Gareth Gore, author of Opus (Editorial Crítica), Antonia Cundy, journalist for Financial Times; Laura Merino, psychologist; Vega González, clinical psychologist and managing director of the Centro de Asistencia e Investigación de Socioadicciones (AIS); José Fernández, psychiatrist and member of the Institut Cult Studies Association; John Paul Lennon, psychologist specializing in religious abuse and sects and Sebastian Sal, the defense lawyer in the ‘case of the 43’, former female auxiliaries in Argentina and other Latin American countries, among others.
Although Opus Dei has faced, since the 1970s, severe criticism from former members of the organization for its coercive dynamics, this is the first documentary series to address the subject with multiple cases and overlapping versions. Mònica Terribas, creator and director of THE HEROIC MINUTE: I LEFT OPUS DEI, has declared: ‘The Heroic Minute holds Opus Dei up to the mirror and reflects the experiences of real women who tell of having had their rights violated and of having suffered psychological and spiritual abuse within the institution. These are real lives of women of all ages and from very different countries who respond to the same pattern’.
Opus Dei is a secular institution of the Catholic Church, based in Rome, founded in Spain in 1928 by the later canonised Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, and with a strong presence throughout the world, especially in Spain and Latin America. The documentary incorporates a documentary archive, as well as a historical, cultural and social framework that allows us to understand the circumstances in which these women lived and made their decisions.
The first-person stories of these thirteen women tell of their adolescence, which led them to join Opus Dei and to devote themselves body and soul to the service of the Work, as well as their subsequent departure and total break with the organisation. Here are some extracts from the interviews:
‘We had a long list of daily mortifications. The first, the heroic minute: you get out of bed, kiss the floor and say serviam (I will serve). Tiredness is a trump card to make you weaker and more manipulable’
‘When you come out, suddenly nobody knows you. 22 years of my life in Opus Dei went up in smoke. My documents have no official validity’
‘I know many people whose lives Opus Dei has made miserable [after leaving]. That’s brutal’
‘We were forced to work for many years as maids without being paid’
The actress Claudia Traisac (Teresa, Los pacientes del doctor García), directed by Laura Sisteró, gives face and voice to the stories of these women, in fictionalised recreations based on their shared experiences, which act as a common thread in each of the episodes.
THE HEROIC MINUTE: I LEFT OPUS DEI is an original documentary series for Max. On behalf of THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, the executive producers are Mònica Terribas, Bernat Elías and Amparo Castellano. Zaida Serrano-Piedecasas and María Rubio are the producers for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Episodic synopsis:
Episode 1: God’s call
They are young adolescents who, through a process of recruitment, in many cases hidden from their families, are asked to join Opus Dei at the age of 14. They take on promises of poverty, fidelity and chastity for life. They then begin their new life plan within the Work: work, apostolate, mortifications and prayer. Women of all ages coincide in their daily account of lives controlled and coerced by the internal structures of Opus Dei.
Episode 2: In love with Opus Dei
The life of celibacy and sacrifice of the numeraries and aggregates within Opus Dei isolates them in a radical way from the world from which they come. It is a life of unlimited dedication of heart, body and mind. The occupations are constant, without a minute to think of anything but what God commands. We will experience through re-enactments their lives of passion and spiritual dedication, and the methods by which Opus Dei isolates them mentally, physically and intellectually from the outside world.
Episode 3: Trapped Lives
Resilience and obedience at any cost, to the point of giving oneself definitively through fidelity to Opus Dei. But obedience to whom and for what? Who do we work for? Who do we serve? God or Saint Josemaría? Who have I become? Why can’t I make my own decisions? Depression, suicide attempts, attempts to escape. They tell the story. They feel that their lives are held hostage until they leave Opus Dei. It is the only way out. In this episode we experience the different crises of the protagonists until they manage to leave Opus Dei.
Episode 4: Life after the heroic minute
Ten, fifteen, twenty years of life dedicated to Opus Dei, and when you decide to leave, who are you for your people, for society? what can you do? how do you relearn to live? who do you explain that this happened to you in Opus Dei, a prestigious and powerful institution? Silence. Years of silence and more isolation. No direction, no emotional stability, no one to blame because you are the one who failed God. No work history, no money, no friends other than the family of the Work that now rejects you. Starting from scratch to get yourself back. That is the Heroic Minute with emotional, psychological, sexual, work and family consequences that this episode tells.
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