Amarga Navidad
The new film by Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar centers on Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), a commercial director who loses her mother. She tries to suppress her grief by throwing herself into her work, until migraines force her to stop working.
She leaves for Lanzarote with her friend Patricia, while her boyfriend Bonifacio stays behind in Madrid. In parallel, we follow filmmaker Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a screenwriter who puts Elsa’s story down on paper on a meta-level. In doing so, the film plays with the idea of autofiction—a blend of autobiography and fiction—and explores how life and art blur into one another.
Amarga Navidad is an intimate, personal Spanish tragicomedy, written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, the acclaimed filmmaker behind titles such as Madres paralelas, Dolor y Gloria, and The Room Next Door.
“Almodóvar speelt in op zijn beste kanten: interessante vrouwelijke personages in designerkleding die kibbelen in bijzonder mooi vormgegeven appartementen. De zelfbewuste analyse van hoe kunstenaars hun omgeving gebruiken voor eigen gewin geeft diepgang, maar in essentie is dit vooral een fijne zomerse film voor de winterdagen.”
Rob van den Bergh
Programmeur
