Bitter Christmas (15): 18th to 20th September

A tale of two alternating stories: Elsa, an advertising director who suffers a severe panic attack following her mother’s death during December holiday season, attempting to escape her grief with Raúl, a renowned filmmaker writing a screenplay inspired by the personal hardships and secret affairs of his own inner circle. Weaving together life and fiction as the pair retreat to Lanzarote, this story examines grief, love and the ethical dilemmas of exploiting real-life trauma for art.

“A candidly personal film, circling around ideas of grief, loss, the vampirism of art and the betrayal involved in basing fictional characters on real people. Perhaps by emphasising this last point, Almodóvar is pre-empting or cauterising a crisis in his own life, while always alchemising the real-unreal duality into something watchable.” – The Guardian

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Milena Smit, Bárbara Lennie, Victoria Luengo, Quim Gutiérrez