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On scanning the list of films from Cinema of the World at the 43rd International Film Festival of India in Goa, one found that there was an amazing paucity of Spanish entries. Only two, and those too joint ventures, namely White Elephant (Argentina-Spain) and Twice Born (Italy-Spain-Croatia). Pedro Almodovar, arguably leading Spanish director, drew a blank. His All About My Mother , which was screened in New Delhi over a decade back, had a profound impact on the audience. The plot is taken from his earlier film The Flower of My Secret Almodovar dedicates it "to all the women who act. To men who act and become women. To all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother." It deals with a mother who, after the death of her son in a car accident, goes in search of the father of her son. The film is peopled with all kinds of weird characters, a transvestite prostitute, a pregnant nun and a lesbian actress and is based on plays by Frederico Garcia Lorca and Tennesse Williams. The accident scene in which the son is killed is taken from John Cassevette’s Opening Night, which was the inaugural film at the 1978 Berlin Film Festival. Cecilia Roth plays the lead role as Manuella, the mother, and what an outstanding show she puts up. It is an absolutely stunning drama and there is a thin line that separates man and a woman, with transvestites and eunuchs joining the merry gang. Stunning, even disorienting. His films are mother-centric and deal with women’s issues. His first film Labyrinth of Passions (1982) is about a nypmh Sexilla and her encounters with pop star Riza. It is set in permissive Spain between the exit of the dictator Franco and AIDS awareness. Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) won the Best Foreign Language film Oscar the same year, the story of a Pepa Marcos (Carmen Maura), a woman depressed after her lover leaves her and gets involved with a number of highly strung neighbours, including her son (Antonio Banderas), by a previous lover. It is an intense drama that enters the psyche of these troubled women and won for Carmen Maura the Best Actress Award. Tie Me up, Tie Me Down (1990) is inspired by William Wyler’s The Collector, which was never released in India for obvious reasons. Based on a John Fowles novel, it is about a psychotic man who holds a woman captive and virtually possesses her. Almodovar’s latest effort is The Skin I Live In inspired by Italian impressionist Lucino Visconti’s Bellisimo and dealing with superstition in a backward Spain. It opens with dozens of women furiously scrubbing the graves of their deceased and establishing the influence of the dead over the living as a key theme. It follows three generations of women in the same family who survive wind, fire and even death, a story of "Black Spain," superstitious and backward. Born in 1949 in La Mancha in a poor family, his love for the great masters got him into films. His father, who could hardly read or write, earned his living by moving barrels of wine on a mule. His mother got him a job as a part-time teacher, who would also read and write letters for the illiterate. At 18, against the wishes of his parents, he moved to Madrid where he worked on a number of small jobs during the morning so that he could learn film in the afternoon. It was his deep dedication and passion for cinema that finally earned rich dividends. And he joins the select band of Spanish filmmakers like Luis Bunuel, Florian Rey and Carlos Saura. A retrospective of Almodovar’s films will be hugely welcomed to lovers of good cinema.
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