Volver

Volver (2006) is about three generations of women, and a mother who ought to be dead comes back. Raimunda cleans for a living in Madrid, her husband is out of work and she has a daughter. She and her sister Sole visit their aunt in the village. A rumour is going round there: their mother, who died in a fire years ago, has been seen. At the same time a killing happens in Raimunda's flat and she has to dispose of the body alone. The film runs the two lines side by side and both connect to the same secret. Almodóvar set it in La Mancha, where he grew up. The wind, the custom of tending graves, and the way the women look at each other all come directly from there. Not one male character matters; the whole weight is on the women and that is deliberate. The mother arrives like a ghost but the film is not supernatural; the explanation comes at the end and is entirely worldly. Penélope Cruz sings in one scene. The voice is not hers; the flamenco singer Estrella Morente recorded it and Cruz worked her mouth to that recording. It won the screenplay prize at Cannes, and the acting prize was given to all the women in the film together. Cruz was nominated for best actress, the first Spanish actress nominated in that category for a performance in Spanish. It runs 121 minutes. Good for: Almodóvar, stories about women, and Spanish cinema. Less good for: the register keeps sliding between comedy and drama, and abuse is part of the subject.