In The Name of the Girl

Karl Marx's famous quotation "Religion is the opium of the people" is one of the 'odd' ideas nine-year-old Manuela confronts her ultra-catholic family with, while she tries to teach her little cousins the basic principles of communism...
It is the summer of 1976 in a valley of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador. Manuela, educated according to the communist and atheistic ideals of her beloved father, believes her parents to be on a revolutionary mission in Colombia, while she and her five-year-old brother Camilo have to spend the summer at their grandparents' farmhouse.
Of course, in a catholic-conservative household a nine-year-old's Marxist world outlook will cause trouble. Manuela eagerly defends her father's political and philosophical ideas, unwilling to obey her grandmother's conservative rules.
The old lady, alarmed by the harmful influence Manuela has on the rest of the family's kids, threatens to send her back to her parents unless she accepts to be baptized. Manuela, who is determined not to interrupt her parents' very important mission, accepts the deal.
Following the family tradition according to which the eldest daughters and grand-daughters must carry the name of the Virgin of Dolores, her name is changed to ‘Manuela de los Dolores' during the baptism ceremony. Outraged by this imposition, Manuela defies her grandparents' most severe rule and, together with her cousins, sets out to explore the forbidden library of the farmhouse, where they find schizophrenic Uncle Felipe, who has been kept hidden for years, devoted to setting words free from the constraints of dogmas.
The encounter with her uncle's crazy wisdom provides Manuela the means to free herself from her own dogmas and changes her relationship with words - including her own name.

Tania Hermida, born in Cuenca, Ecuador, 1968, studied Film Direction at the San Antonio de los Baños International Film and TV School (Cuba, 1991). Tania holds an MA in Cultural Studies from the Universidad del Azuay (2002). She combined her work as a filmmaker with teaching at the San Francisco de Quito University between 1996 and 2007. From 2007-2008 Tania participated as representative in the Constituent Assembly that wrote the new Ecuadorian Constitution.
Her first feature film Qué tan Lejos (How much further) 2006, won acclaim from international critics and audiences alike, winning important international awards (e.g. Silver Zenith at the Montreal World film Festival, Coral Award at the Havana Film Festival) as well as five audience awards. It also broke national box office records in Ecuador and was distributed successfully in Spain, France and Switzerland.
En el Nombre de la Hija, Tania's second feature film, received awards from the Ibermedia Program, Visions Sud Est, Hubert Bals Fund and the Ecuadorian Film Council.