PARALLEL MOTHERS might be Pedro Almodóvar‘s best film and it also might be Penélope Cruz‘s best film. Cruz plays professional photographer Janis. One day Janis approaches forensic archeologist Arturo (Israel Elejalde) after a shoot and asks him for help: there‘s a mass grave of victims of the fascist Falangists, who also killed Janis‘ grandfather. The village community wants to finally salvage and bury the corpses, but there‘s no state support for that any more. This encounter turns into an affair and Janis gets pregnant soon after. Unlike 16 year old Ana (Milena Smit), who she meets in the hospital, she is beaming with happiness about becoming a mother. The two women befriend each other.

Almodóvar turns this starting point into an exalted melodrama reminiscent of his earlier films with the two mothers at the center. “Exalted“ refers to the speed of the events: the next turn is never predictable, there‘s everything from birth to death. However, it is all told with great calmness. The two women in PARALLEL MOTHERS have every reason to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but they act in a cautious and considered way. The most dramatic scenes take place off screen, and a bitter fight is followed by a call the next day. “We have to talk.“ “Yes, we are adults.“ Then a solution is found. There‘s something comforting about the gentleness with which Almodóvar treats his protagonists and their life choices and thereby also the audience.

PARALLEL MOTHER‘s emotional power unfolds quietly. Almodóvar‘s multi-layered narrative goes far beyond the drama of the two, three people at the center of events. Parallel mothers – they aren‘t just Janis and Ana, but also Ana‘s mother Teresa (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), who would rather be a famous actress than a devoted mother, and Janis‘ mother and grandmother, who were single mothers just like her. The row of parallel mothers are like two mirrors facing each other – and the fathers, daughters, sons, neighbors and friends – that Almodóvar keeps an eye on, are continuous in both directions.

PARALLEL MOTHERS is about connecting across generations, between people who aren‘t necessarily family, between presence and the absence, between past, present and the future. A future that is decided in the present, and a present that can only be understood with knowledge from the past. Almodóvar gradually returns to the almost forgotten starting point of his narrative – to Janis‘ request at the start of the film – the clearing up of a fascist crime.

Hendrike Bake

Translation: Elinor Lewy