At the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona in 2024, an unusual act appeared on the lineup alongside big names like Pulp and Charli XCX. Stella Maris took the stage as haunting home movies, religious images, and glittery GIFs played on the screen behind them. Part Haim, part Heaven’s Gate, the six sisters performed their hits—”Christian electronic dance music” that their late mother supposedly believed would help them save the world.
The performance felt completely real, but the band wasn’t. It was a publicity stunt for the Spanish TV hit La Mesías (or The Messiah), which aired there in 2023. The seven-episode series centers on a brother and sister, Enric and Irene, who have grown apart. They discover that their siblings have become a viral pop band. What follows is a dreamy, flashback-heavy journey into the family’s past, filled with emotional neglect, parental narcissism, and religious fanaticism. Oh, and there are UFOs too.
La Mesías is certainly unique in its vision, created by Los Javis, the Spanish duo who won best director at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year for their upcoming queer drama La Bola Negra. This is definitely not a series you’ll forget quickly. Besides being incredibly long (some episodes run close to an hour and 20 minutes, which makes it stand out on the usually film-focused streaming service Mubi), it is—and I say this with affection—truly bizarre. At times, it feels like two or three different shows have been mashed together, with timelines competing for your attention. There are the early years, with young Enric and Irene played with poise and maturity by child actors Bruno Núñez Arjona and Carla Moral, plus Ana Rujas as Montserrat—part Cher in Mermaids, part Mommie Dearest, who drunkenly tells her kids that “mamá tiene que vivir” (“mum needs a life too”). Then there are the sheltered teenage years, with the siblings now played by Biel Rossell and Irene Balmes, going by the names Isaías and Resurrección. Their mother forces them to perform religious music in the 90s while wearing clothes that look straight out of the 1920s. Finally, we see Enric and Irene in the present (Roger Casamajor and Macarena García), scarred by their childhood but determined to rescue their younger sisters.
If it wasn’t already obvious, this is a pretty ambitious undertaking. And if you thought Pedro Almodóvar had a lot to say about mothers, just wait until you see what Los Javis have in store here. Montserrat (also played by Lola Dueñas and Carmen Machi) projects all her own psychological chaos and religious obsession onto her children. The pairing of Dueñas as the middle-aged Montserrat and Albert Pla as her ultra-conservative husband, Pep, is a casting triumph, as they play some of the most awful (but also often the most ridiculous) parents you can imagine. Despite all its horrors, La Mesías is darkly funny, finding humor in unexpected places, like a visit from social services or the aforementioned performance by the two teenage siblings, who face a horrible mix of indifference and laughter from the audience. The Stella Maris songs are funny too, but they’re also quite catchy, thanks to clever writing from the Catalan pop band Hidrogenesse.
Some parts of La Mesías don’t quite work. The idea that Stella Maris is everywhere on the internet never quite lines up with how isolated the sisters seem to be (though, to be fair, they were heavily inspired by the real-life group Flos Mariae). There are about ten too many plotlines, and some episodes drag. And while the music budget was clearly high, some of the song choices—like Hozier’s Take Me to Church and Paul Young’s Everytime You Go Away—can feel a bit heavy-handed (though an exception should probably be made for Pink Floyd’s Mother, with its line “mama’s gonna make all of your nightmares come true”).All your nightmares come true—which is spot-on, but also chilling in this context. As a piece of art, though, this series is a triumph: a nightmare-inducing thriller with the kind of ambition that makes it clear why Los Javis would later win at Cannes. Enric and Irene’s aunt tells them, “Your mum met many men, but the worst of them was God,” which feels too simple an explanation for what we see here. This isn’t a show that criticizes religion itself, so much as the dogma, destruction—and sometimes even the poppy-fueled indoctrination—that ordinary people bring to it. La Mesías is streaming on Mubi now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the TV show La Mesías based on the premise that it is a bizarre and unforgettable review topic
General Beginner Questions
Q What is La Mesías about
A Its a Spanish limited series about a family shattered by religious fanaticism It jumps between the past and the present Its a story about trauma fame and the destructive power of belief
Q Why is everyone calling it bizarre or truly unforgettable
A Because it mixes genres wildly One minute its a gritty family drama the next its a surreal musical sequence with choreographed dancing and then it shifts to a psychological thriller The tone is unpredictable the visuals are striking and the emotional impact is heavy which makes it stick with you long after the credits roll
Q Is it a comedy or a drama
A Its a drama with very dark humor but its not a comedy The bizarre elements come from the surreal musical numbers and the extreme behavior of the characters The core is deeply tragic and unsettling
Q Do I need to speak Spanish to watch it
A No Its a Spanishlanguage show but its available on streaming platforms with highquality subtitles and dubbing options The performances are so strong that subtitles are recommended for the full effect
Q Is this a true story
A No its a fictional story but it was inspired by reallife cases of religious cults and family cults in Spain particularly the case of the Cult of the Cordero de Dios The creator Javier Ambrossi has said its a work of fiction rooted in real social anxieties
Story Character Questions
Q Who is the main character
