Bitter Christmas

Dir: Pedro Almodovar
Cast: Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón
112 mins · 2026 · Spain · Cert 15
Pedro Almodóvar’s very personal melodrama circles grief, loss and women’s creativity in a multi-layered, kaleidoscopic work.
In 2004: After her mother dies, director Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) immerses herself in work. When a migraine forces her to stop, she travels to Lanzarote with a friend (Victoria Luengo) while her fireman/stripper boyfriend (Patrick Criado) stays behind.
Desperate to break her writer’s block, she draws on the lives of her friends for inspiration.
In 2025: Like Elsa, filmmaker Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is struggling to write, but – looking inside himself and at the people who make up his own intimate universe, his partner and his assistant – he too gradually makes a breakthrough in his script.