Last year, Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, Madres paralelas was presented at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was released in December 2021 and is available on Blu-ray on April 6, 2022. 
Janis (Penelope Cruz, Volpi Cup for Best Performance at the Venice Film Festival 2021) photographer for the press, goes in search of her grandfather killed during the Spanish Civil War. During her investigation, she meets Arturo (Israel Elejalde), an anthropologist in charge of searching mass graves. Seduced by this married man, she becomes pregnant by him.About to give birth, she shares her room with Ana (Milena Smit), a teenager afraid of becoming a mother. Janis tries to cheer him up despite her own fears. Their exchanges will create a very close link between them, going so far as to experience events that will upset their lives.
A simple situation that leads to an observation of Spanish society.
As always in the works of Pedro Almodovar, women have a central role. The rupture of the family unit dear to the director is present in this opus. It depicts through the chance meeting of the two heroines. A heterogeneous Spanish society where all social strata coexist with the scar of Francoism in the background, which has never really closed. 
The meeting between Janis and Ana will be the source of the conflict. This last work is undoubtedly one of Pedro Almodovar's most accomplished films. Evoking at the same time, the madness of the contemporary world and the difficulties of memory transmission. Despite, a certain predictability in the narrative and quite important ellipses at the beginning. The film plays with its various imperfections with great skill. The character of photographer embodied by Penelope Cruz is not chosen at random. Madres Paralelas is a snapshot of a changing society where every detail can hide a secret. The men are doomed to a deafening silence, which transforms them into ghosts of the past whose shadow from the mass graves of Francoism hangs over the entire film.
The eternal rebirth of an actress faithful to Almodovar.
Almodovar's microcosm would not be so rich if he did not know how to surround himself with actresses, highlighted by his diegetic universe that gives all the grace to the characters tormented by the complex lives he represents. After Volver in 2006, which earned a collective interpretation prize for all the actresses of the film, Penelope Cruz in the lead. In Madres paralelas, she slips into the skin of an independent and confident woman, in search of her missing grandfather. Playing one of the most complex roles of her career that earned her a nomination for the Oscar for Best Actress 2022. 
She is surrounded by other colorful actresses, some of whom are regulars in Almodovar's universe. Like Rossy de Palma who plays the role of his best friend, Elena. There are also newcomers, like Aitana Sanchez-Gijon who perfectly embodies Ana's mother. Sometimes managing to steal the show from Penelope Cruz. These actresses embody the memory of a Spain that the young, often apolitical generation tries to forget. The touching film of frankness, like the poster, withdrawn because it was deemed shocking is that evokes an eye represented by a nipple from which flows a drop of milk. Madres Paralelas is a tribute to all mothers including the motherland.
