"Madres paralelas" by Pedro Almodóvar (2021)

I am so glad that yesterday I had pulled myself out of the funk (it was cloudy day with a strong air pressure) and willed myself into a walk to a local little art cinema Lab 111 - the place for a real film lovers - where they were screening latest Almodóvar. It was something I wanted to see for the longest time, but had to find out the place where they will use English subtitles + for some reason it did not appeal to any of my friends so I went to see it by myself. And loved every second of it.

"Madres paralelas" might be one of the best Almodóvar movies so far, but than he created so many that I would have to go back and re-watch the whole list in order to pick up the favourite. Trough the years I might have forgotten some, but I do truly remember "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown " and "Kika" as perfect examples of his particular genius - colourful, witty, madcap, feminist - and in fact I came in the cinema expecting another comedy, where this turned into very satisfactory drama. It reminded me a little bit of those old Hollywood women movies with usually strong actresses, where the story was focused on women's lives and men were kind of supporting parts. Here we have excellent Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit as two heavily pregnant mothers who bond while sharing same hospital room and later kept in touch, discovering that their lives intertwine in the most unexpected ways. This is Almodóvar movie so naturally he finds a spotlight for his favourite Rossy de Palma who plays a strong, independent and supportive best friend - actually most of the women here are strong and independent, as witnessed by Cruz when she decides to raise a child as a single mother and says that every woman in her family was a single mother. There are some very interesting meditations on motherhood and connection with children - not only the two main characters are single mothers, but there is also excellent Aitana Sánchez-Gijón as example of different type of mother, the one who does not sacrifice her whole life for a baby (in her case, she actually puts herself in the first place) - since we are conditioned to expect mothers must be self-sacrificial, it comes as a surprise that we actually understand her. Israel Elejalde is forensic archaeologist who must be here, because he is somebody who makes Penelope's baby but otherwise he is mostly out of picture - almost like a mirror image of those old movies where pretty women were mostly decorations while men did the real job. I cannot elaborate anything more about the story because its important that viewer experiences it himself but I must say it was one of the best movies I have seen recently. It made me realise how little I know about recent European cinema - all these actors are celebrated in their homeland and I had no clue about their work. Just like with the music, there is a huge world outside of English language market. Funny how I never paid much attention to Penélope Cruz and she was excellent here, in fact everybody - to a statist - was.