← Back to Directory
Holy Camp!
Movie

Holy Camp!

2017 • Musical

Woke Score
7
out of 10

Plot

María and Susana, two rebellious teens spend their summer in a catholic camp. With music as their common denominator, teen rebellion and ecclesiastic order will collide, creating a hymn to freedom and first love.

Overall Series Review

Holy Camp! (*La Llamada*) is a Spanish musical comedy set in a traditional Catholic summer camp where two rebellious teenage girls, María and Susana, are left behind with two nuns. The plot centers on the girls' clash between their dream of pop stardom and the camp's ecclesiastic order. María begins to experience visions of God, who appears as a pop icon singing Whitney Houston songs. Meanwhile, Susana is struggling with her own identity and developing a romantic connection with one of the young nuns, Sister Milagros. The film explores themes of finding one's true calling, sexual liberation, and faith, ultimately celebrating self-acceptance and a highly modernized, irreverent interpretation of divinity. The narrative structure is a straightforward coming-of-age story centered on the female protagonists' personal freedoms.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The core narrative conflict is one of spiritual versus secular calling and sexual identity, not race or class. Characters are judged based on their personal merit and emotional authenticity, and there is no evident plot focus on intersectional hierarchy or vilification of a specific ethnic group. The casting is localized and colorblind in a non-political sense.

Oikophobia3/10

The movie is set within a Spanish Catholic institution, but the critique is directed at the traditional, rigid structure of the faith, not the Spanish nation or Western civilization broadly. The movie does not frame the home culture as fundamentally corrupt; rather, it portrays the institutional faith as needing a modern, more accepting adaptation. One of the main nuns is even actively trying to modernize the camp.

Feminism6/10

The movie is overwhelmingly female-centric, described as a 'gloriously female' story where the main characters are four well-rounded women whose struggles drive the plot. The teens' dreams are focused on a pop music career and self-discovery, which aligns with the 'Girl Boss' focus on professional and personal fulfillment. Male characters are either secondary or a non-threatening, pop-singing deity, but there is no explicit anti-natalist message.

LGBTQ+9/10

The narrative places a significant emphasis on alternative sexuality, explicitly featuring the queer coming-out story of a main character, Susana. Her romantic interest is a nun, Sister Milagros, centering a lesbian relationship within a Catholic camp setting as a 'hymn to freedom.' The message is firmly rooted in the celebration of sexual identity as the most important element of self-acceptance.

Anti-Theism8/10

The film heavily subverts traditional religious structure. God appears as a sequined, pop-singing figure, communicating only through secular love songs, and is ultimately summoned through a sexually suggestive dance routine by the teens. This portrayal substitutes traditional, transcendent moral law and piety with a subjective, personal 'call' rooted in pop culture and self-expression, framing the traditional faith as irrelevant or out-of-touch, despite depicting the nuns as loving and supportive individuals.