What is the psychological effect of being laid off permanently? Statistics show a high correlation with suicide in many countries, but Spain has a low suicide rate. Accordingly, the film Mondays in the Sun (Los lunes al sol), directed by Fernando León de Aranoa, provides more complex answers about some 200 dockworkers in Vigo, Galicia, who, three years earlier, participated in a riot and were later given a large bonus if they signed a separation agreement. The owners of the shipyard evidently calculate that they can make more money by replacing the docks, which have a fantastic view of Vigo’s waterfront and skyline, with condos for the rich. Rico (played by Joaquin Climent) uses the money to purchase a bar in the neighborhood of the docks, hardly a location to attract many customers, so his principal patrons are laid off dockworkers who drink, often excessively, and commiserate about their fate together without paying for their tabs. Reina (played by Enrique Villen), another laid-off dockworker, is a security guard at a soccer stadium; he sneaks in his friends for a view, though they have to crouch in the bleachers to see anything. Amador (played by Celso Bugallo) drinks so much that he, in effect, commits suicide, and his death is mourned only by his fellow inebriates. Sergei, a Russian (played by Serge Riaboukine), tells a joke or two but otherwise is calm; he doubtless saw much worse in the Soviet Union, where he claims to have been training to be a cosmonaut when the communist system collapsed. Lino (played by José Ángel Egido) conscientiously applies for jobs, but he is a victim of age discrimination even after dyeing the gray out of his hair (but not shaving his thick beard). José Suárez (played by Luis Tosar) is better off, since his spouse Ana (played by Nieve de Medina) has a nightly job working in a tuna cannery. One day, the two apply for a loan at a bank. However, the loan interviewer places their application in a hopper different from other applicants, which José interprets as a clue that the loan will be denied. Then he becomes indignant, grabs the application and tears it up, provoking Ana to complain bitterly, and she begins to contemplate leaving him for her own peace of mind. At the center of the story is Carlos “Santa” Santamaría (played by Javier Bardem), whose psychological response is to throw a rock to destroy a public light, chatter incessantly in the hopes of finding something amusing to say, flirt with pretty girls, and loaf with his friends at the bar or outside near the docks. Although Rico does not want Santa to flirt with his fifteen-year-old daughter, Natalia (played by Aída Folch), she is amused by what the men say at the bar. One night Nata secretly arranges to subcontract a babysitting job to Santa, paying him 3,000 pesetas (US$15) while keeping 2,000 (US$10) for herself. When Santa goes to the home of the rich person to take care of a two-year-old boy, he brings along his friends, who show resentment that they are cast away while others enjoy the good life. At bedtime, Santa reads to the boy a story, “The Grasshopper and the Ant,” but he sees through the symbolism and critiques the moral in almost Marxist terms for the astonished child. The slow-moving but engaging Mondays in the Sun, thus, contains tragicomic humor that is more European than American, more absurdist than bellylaugh material. When the film ends, Santa has taken an extreme but amusing form of civil disobedience that perhaps symbolizes that the unemployed men are in limbo, living one day at a time without caring which day it is. As the tagline says, “This film is not based on a real story. It is based on thousands.” MH