(source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12618926/)
Janice (named after Janice Joplin), an accomplished photographer asks the help of anthropologist Arturo to find the mass grave, where her grandfather and other men from her village, Franco's regime victims, were buried. Between the confident Janis and (married) Arturo starts a fling that leads to an unexpected pregnancy. For Janis, a woman in her 40s, this baby is a gift,and she decides to raise it by herself, following her family tradition of single motherhood.
The narration then takes us to the maternity ward where Janis meets Ana. They are both giving birth as single mothers -parallel lives- but they are so different between them. Janis is certain about the baby, confident, but on the other hand Ana is insecure, an adolescent who lives with her narcissistic and ambitious actor, mother.
A strange coincidence brought these two women together and as they experience the same -parallel- phase in their lifes, they promise to keep in touch and they do so, mostly by phone.
Then Arturo, Janis' baby father comes with news about the investigation of the mass grave, but along with that he makes Janis suspect that her baby -girl isn't really hers. What should Janis now do?
(source: I will not give any other details about the film. I think that those who know Almodovar's films can easily imagine the development of the case.
But I would like to dwell on some of our favorite features in each of Almodovar's films.First, the color red. Apart from each protagonist, the dominant in each of his films is red. Red is the dress that Penelope Cruz wears when she meets Arturo again. Crimson red is the lipstick worn by Rossi de Palma, Almodovar's favorite actress, in every scene that she appears.
Red is the history of Spain, red as the blood of the innocent people that lost their lives during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco's regime.
Because Almodovar doesn't make a simple film about motherhood or the human stories that could happen. Almodovar in every film has a political statement and in this movie the parallel story of the mass grave links the motherhood with our roots, the history of our country.
The march of the women in the last scenes towards the grave of their ancestor, their loved ones is a reminder for us all, that even history can be cruel, we must never forget it.
Without history we are like motherless children.
