Bitter Christmas (15)

Iconic director Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Volver) returns with a rich, reflexive melodrama investigating the mysteries of creativity and the fluid boundaries between reality and fiction. 

In 2004: After her mother dies, director Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) immerses herself in work. When a migraine forces her to stop, she travels to Lanzarote with a pal (Victoria Luengo) while her fireman/stripper boyfriend (Patrick Criado) stays behind. Desperate to break her writer’s block, she draws on the lives of her friends for inspiration. In 2025: Like Elsa, filmmaker Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is struggling to write, but – looking inside himself and at those who make up his own intimate universe – he too gradually makes a breakthrough in his script.