VOLVER
Spain/2006/Spanish dialogue with English subtitles/Colour/35mm/111 mins
The tempestuous winds of La Mancha start murderous fires and are said to drive the inhabitants of its villages insane. From these principles of local gossip, Pedro Almodóvar builds this intoxicating and delightfully convoluted story. Raimunda (the luminously beautiful Penélope Cruz), tends the grave of her mother (Carmen Maura), dutifully visits her batty aunt, Paula (Chus Lampreave), and guards her adolescent daughter. But things go seriously awry when when her husband attempts to rape her daughter and is stabbed to death (we briefly see the bloody corpse, not the killing itself). He has to be hidden in the deep freeze. Meanwhile there are suggestions that her supposedly dead mother has started re-appearing. Combining humour and pathos, marvellous performances from his other female leads, enchantingly contrived plot twists and rich visuals, Volver has at its beating heart Cruz’s sensational performance and all the women shared the Best Acting award at Cannes this year.
PEDRO ALMODOVAR [acute on second O] was born in 1949 in La Mancha, Spain, and moved to Madrid aged 20. He made his 35mm feature debut with Pepi, Luci, Bom… (1980) and has since written and directed more than a dozen internationally acclaimed works, including Matador (1986), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), All About My Mother (1999), which won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film, and Talk to Her (2002), for which he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Director & Scriptwriter: Pedro Almodóvar
Producer: Esther García
Cinematographer: José Luis Alcaine
Editor: José Salcedo
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo
This film is part of our Screen on the Green program. Please check the festival schedule for times and dates.
CONTENT ADVISORY (violence)
