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"Don't say that, Raimunda, or I'll start crying. And ghosts don't cry"
Overview
To celebrate Mother's Day we’re revisiting a surreal tale of eccentric family ties, intergenerational womanhood, and the afterlife from director Pedro Almodóvar. Penélope Cruz and Lola Dueñas play Raimunda and Soledad, two sisters living in Madrid whose mother Irene (Carmen Maura) was killed three years earlier in a fire. When Soledad pays a visit to the village where they grew up, she learns that Irene has returned as a ghost and intends to join her back in Madrid as a luggage stowaway. Meanwhile, Raimunda is dealing with dramas of her own involving a precocious daughter, a murder, and a dead body hidden in a freezer. Things somehow become even more complicated after that, comprende? Si, es una película de Almodóvar.
Why See This Film
Almodóvar is known for making colourful, complicated and warmly hilarious films which often deal with family trauma and tragic histories. With Volver, he drew inspiration from the grit of Italian neorealism, Luchino Visconti’s Bellissima (1951), Michael Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce (1945) and his own childhood in La Mancha. Penelope Cruz's impassioned star turn made her the first Spanish actress ever to be nominated for Best Lead Actress at the Oscars, and the entire female ensemble went on to win a collective Best Actress trophy at the 59th Cannes Film Festival in a stroke of well-earned jury genius.
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