Pedro Almodóvar once again delivers an emotionally charged film within a film within a film, but this time the director is harder on himself than ever. The latest work from a Filmekimi regular tells two stories that mirror each other and at some point merge. The first follows Elsa, a director of commercials, over Christmas in December 2004. The second, set in 2026, follows Raúl, a cult filmmaker writing a screenplay about his alter ego, Elsa. Bitter Christmas explores the ties between the creative process and reality, inspiration and, more broadly, life itself. Of the melodrama, which competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Almodóvar says: “I have never been so ruthless with myself.”
SCREENINGS
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