Pedro Almodóvar returns to cinemas with another lusciously shot, brilliantly constructed, and movingly self-aware tragicomedy.

In 2004, ad director Elsa sets out to return to serious filmmaking in Lanzarote, while grappling with the overlooked relationships and tragedies of her past and their uncomfortable relationship with her work. In 2025, long-famed filmmaker Raúl begins writing that very story, using the people, relationships, and tragedies he knows best for material without asking permission – and with even more uncomfortable results. Now on his 24th full-length film after 52 years in the field, writer-director Almodóvar faces the difficult issues of his own stature and dizzying self-referentiality head-on. Here, he makes himself the centre of an ingenious, vivid, and penetrating melodrama, but one with a keen focus on his own personal failings. Bárbara Lennie stands out as his alter-ego’s alter-ego.