Dir: Pedro Almodóvar. Starring: Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Rossy de Palma. Cert 15, 123 minutes
Of all the women Penélope Cruz has brought to life for Pedro Almodóvar, it’s Volver’s Raimunda who has stood like a titan above the rest. It’s the performance that earned her an Oscar nomination, one of a mother whose resilience knows no bounds. Raimunda is a being of such hard-earned wisdom and complexity that she seems to contain universes within that puffed-up beehive of hers. But if the heroine of Parallel Mothers – the eighth film Almodóvar and Cruz have made together over four decades – lives under the shadow of Raimunda, she doesn’t do so quietly.
