Final Vows

One might think a cloistered life is a solitary one, but the documentary Final Vows portrays a Cistercians order of nuns whose livelihood derives from community. At the Santa Rita Abbey, a Catholic monastery in Sonoita, Arizona, a dozen nuns share their joys and struggles of devoting their lives to this community through prayer and work. Director Victoria Westover filmed over a four-year period and gained the nuns’ trust so they could be candid about the modern challenges a religious order faces. Most of the nuns are aging, and there aren’t as many young women answering the call.