Meet the nuns who inspired Paul Thomas Anderson – 10/11/2025 – Illustrated

In “One Battle After Another”, a new film by Paul Thomas Anderson, there are elements that drive the plot and also surprise, such as the guerrilla nuns.

In the plot, the Sisters of Brave Beaver form an enclave of women dedicated to a mission in the hills of California, where they grow marijuana and shelter rebels fleeing authorities.

The missionaries in the film, however, have real inspiration from the Sisters of the Valley, a group that describes itself as “marijuana nuns” and is located in Merced, in the Central Valley of California, in the United States.

Although they do not belong to any religious order, they wear habits, follow the cycles of the moon and speak the language of spiritual rituals. As they say, the mission is to heal the world with plant-based medicine.

After the film’s release, the nuns published an invitation on Instagram for the public to watch it.

“We are deeply honored and grateful to have been invited to be part of this masterpiece — a defining film of our time. A work that will resonate now and for decades to come. We couldn’t be more proud of its message, its legacy and everything it represents,” they wrote in the caption in which they shared some images from the film set.

According to a producer of the film, the Sisters of the Valley helped to base the idea of ​​the Sisters of the Brave Beaver complex in fiction, filmed in an old Spanish mission in Lompoc, north of Santa Barbara, today a public park in California.

They sell medicinal products based on CBD, the cannabis compound without a psychoactive effect, and a small amount of THC, the component that causes changes in consciousness.