Volver

Raimunda lives in a working-class neighbourhood of Madrid with her unemployed husband and her teenage daughter Paula. She works hard, gets little back, and still has a fierce, glamorous pride. One evening she comes home to find that something terrible has happened, and she has to deal with it, fast. At the same time, in the windy village in La Mancha where she grew up, people say that her dead mother has been seen again. Her sister Sole doesn't believe in ghosts. Until she does.

Pedro Almodóvar went back to his roots for this film, the women and villages of La Mancha where he was raised, and it is one of his warmest. Penélope Cruz gives the performance of her career as Raimunda, all strength and humour and hidden pain, and there is a wonderful scene where she sings the tango "Volver". Carmen Maura, returning to work with Almodóvar after many years, is delightful as the mother. The cast of women won the Best Actress award at Cannes together.

The film mixes comedy, crime, melodrama and a ghost story, and somehow it all fits. Underneath is a serious subject, the abuse that passes between generations and the silence around it, but Almodóvar treats it with humour and tenderness. A film about mothers and daughters, about the dead who never really leave, and about the solidarity of women. Colourful, funny, moving.