After portraying the more buttoned-up world of Manhattan and upstate New York in his English-language feature debut, “The Room Next Door,” Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar returns to his home country for his forthcoming drama “Bitter Christmas,” or “Amarga Navidad.”
Featuring a cast of Almodóvar newcomers and frequent collaborators, the film centers on an advertising director, Elsa, whose mother dies during a holiday weekend in December. According to a synopsis previously shared by Variety, “[Elsa] throws herself into work as a form of escape, not realizing she’s denying herself the time to grieve. Her relentless pace is interrupted when a panic attack forces her to take a break. Her partner, Bonifacio, becomes her anchor in this moment of crisis. Elsa decides to travel to the island of Lanzarote with her friend Patricia, who is also looking to get away from Madrid, while Bonifacio stays behind in the city. The story of these three characters, and several others, runs parallel to that of screenwriter and film director Raúl Durán, intertwining fiction and reality.”
Curzon Film released the first trailer for the “Bitter Christmas” at the end of last week, teasing Almodóvar’s return to the romantic landscapes and interiors of Spain. Brimming with tense vibes, thanks to a chorus of string instruments furiously playing in the background, the trailer opens with an overhead shot of two women sunning on the beach and then reveals little else. But the nearly wordless snippet does hint at the fact that the film — which is described as an exploration of “how life and fiction are inseparably linked, sometimes painfully so” — features a surplus of characters locked in complex dynamics, along with pops of the director’s signature red and an otherwise distinctly vibrant palette.
“Bitter Christmas,” which continues Almodóvar’s later-career focus on mortality, stars Bárbara Lennie (“Petra”), Leonardo Sbaraglia (“Pain and Glory”), Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (“Parallel Mothers”), Victoria Luengo (“The Room Next Door”), Patrick Criado (“Riot Police”), Milena Smit (“Parallel Mothers”), and Quim Gutiérrez (“Darkbluealmostblack”). The feature will be released in Spain on March 20 by Warner Bros, with a U.S. release from Sony Pictures Classics to follow.
Watch the teaser below.