Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are followed through the next few decades, their reunion marking life and death.
Gael García Bernal
Ángel / Juan / Zahara
Fele Martínez
Enrique Goded
Daniel Giménez Cacho
Padre Manolo
Lluís Homar
Sr. Berenguer
Francisco Maestre
Padre José
Francisco Boira
Ignacio
Juan Fernández
Martín
Nacho Pérez
Young Ignacio
Raúl García Forneiro
Young Enrique
Javier Cámara
Paca / Paquito
Alberto Ferreiro
Enrique Serrano
Petra Martínez
Madre
Sandra
Transformista
Roberto Hoyas
Camarero
Agustín Almodóvar
Limpiador Piscina (uncredited)
Robert Forcadell
Man in Public (uncredited)
Luis Lobos Negros
Motero Ochentero (uncredited)
Pol Monen
Niño (uncredited)
Sara Montiel
Soledad (archive footage) (uncredited)
Pau Poch
Niño (uncredited)
Leonor Watling
Mónica (uncredited)
José María Yázpik
Extra (uncredited)
Director, Screenplay
Pedro Almodóvar
September 4, 2023
7
This film treads the fine line between providing an entertaining and sexy piece of cinema with the identification of the serious issues of sexual abuse committed if not always by the clergy, then certainly under their auspices, in Franco's Spain. The story centres around aspiring actor "Angel" (Gael Garciá Bernal) who turns up, unannounced, at the door of his former schoolfriend. This man "Enrique" (Fele Martinez) has gone on to become a successful film director and, perhaps optimistically, "Angel" hopes that the unfinished manuscript he has brought might turn out to be his ticket to success. It transpires that these men have not seen each other since school (some 16 years earlier) and that this document is semi-autobiographical - it takes both back to their childhood where, under the supervision of "Fr. Manolo" (Daniel Giménez Cacho) they attended a catholic school where they had sexual encounters with each other and with others with varying degrees willingness. The story is dark, certainly, but here is plenty of humour and shagging as the story unfolds. We are deliberately left to judge the extent to which "Angel" is being truthful, fanciful or just plain enthusiastic, and we are also offered a fairly unique take on how vengeance might be applied. The narrative is complex, the timelines and characters shift making it quite a thought provoking film to both watch and begin to understand. Well worth it, though!
Status:
Released
Original Language:
Spanish
Budget:
$5,000,000.00
Revenue:
$40,266,982.00