Parallel Mothers

Two women give birth on the same day in the same hospital: Janis, a photographer in her forties, and the young Ana. It emerges later that the babies were switched. At the same time Janis is working to have a mass grave opened, one that holds her great-grandfather, executed during the Civil War. Pedro Almodóvar directed. Penélope Cruz plays Janis. It is the first time in a career of over forty years that Almodóvar has engaged directly with the legacy of the Spanish Civil War. The two lines sit beside each other on purpose: a baby whose parentage is unknown and a pit whose occupants are unknown. It opened the Venice Film Festival and received a nine-minute standing ovation. Cruz won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and was nominated for an Oscar; composer Alberto Iglesias was nominated for Best Original Score. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 96 percent. It appeared on many best-of-2021 lists and grossed 21.4 million dollars worldwide. The poster caused an argument. Instagram removed it under its nudity policy over an image of a nursing breast, and apologised after criticism and a response from the free the nipple movement. Who it is for: viewers who like Almodóvar and films that fuse melodrama with politics. Who it is not for: anyone who will find the join between the two strands forced. That join is exactly what gets argued about.