Bitter Christmas
📅 Friday 18 September · 16:30
About this event
The latest film from Spanish treasure Pedro Almodóvar ( All About my Mother, Pain and Glory ) is a sun-dappled sophisticated and elegant journey exploring life, art and how we tell the stories of our lives. Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is a cult filmmaker in the midst of a creative crisis. When tragedy strikes one of his closest collaborators, he draws inspiration from it to write his next film. Little by little, he imagines Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), a filmmaker in the midst of writing a script, whose journey begins to mirror his own. The two filmmakers become two sides of the same character, in a game of mirrors where the raw honesty of autofiction reveals as much as it destroys. But how far can one go to tell a story? Offering generous servings of his signature bold and vibrant style, as well as camp humour, Almodóvar’s self-reflexive drama inventively plays with narrative structure, blurring the lines between reality, fiction and memory, while exploring questions around the healing power of art and the morality of artists drawing inspiration from the lives of others. Director: Pedro Almodóvar Starring: Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia & Aitana Sánchez-Gijón Year: 2026 Language: In Spanish with English subtitles Country: Spain Running time: 1hr 51mins Times ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Times ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “a spry deconstruction of artistic complacency” – Telegraph “Almodóvar’s sensual, playful, melancholy films are always food for thought and feeling.” – Guardian