Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film is an autofictional, layered tragicomedy in which cinema and reality constantly intertwine. It follows Elsa, an advertising and film director who withdraws into work after her mother’s death and gradually loses her emotional footing. Following a health collapse, she retreats with a friend to Lanzarote, where she tries to escape grief but unknowingly transforms it into creative material. In parallel, we follow Raúl, a screenwriter whose developing film project turns out to mirror – and gradually invent – Elsa’s story, blurring the line between author and fiction.

Almodóvar revisits his familiar themes – memory, identity, female protagonists, and the act of creation itself – while pushing them into a metafictional reflection on the ethics of storytelling and the use of personal experience. The vividly coloured, precisely composed mise-en-scène contrasts with the characters’ intimate emotional instability, creating tension between external control and internal disintegration.

The film had its world premiere in the main competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

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

Distributor: ASFK