(ANSA) - VENICE, 01 SEPT - History, pain and 'imperfect mothers', all this and much more in MADRES PARALELAS, the opening film of this edition of the International Film Festival. A less noisy, colorful and baroque film by Pedro Almodovar than usual, but more mature and happy to come to terms not only with the female world, but also with the history of Spain and its disappeared. "Today I am more interested in 'imperfect mothers' - says the director at the press conference in Venice -, the previous mothers I told were different, they were mostly inspired by my mother or by those female figures who educated me, women I saw as a child like almighty ".
Who are these parallel and imperfect mothers? For what little we can say without making too much spoiler, they are Janis (PenélopeCruz), a successful photographer forty, and the seventeen year old Ana (Milena Smit). The two find themselves sharing the hospital room in which they are about to give birth, two women totally different in character, but both in an unexpected pregnancy. Janis has no regrets and no fear, while Ana is more than scared. What happens between these two women in a short and truly extraordinary span of time is full of pathos. Add to this the fact that Janis is expecting a child from an occasional relationship with a forensic anthropologist (Israel Elejalde) to which the woman at a certain point makes an appeal: to recover the bodies of her great-grandparents, victims of the avalanches,who were buried in a mass grave she located. "The Spanish historical memory with respect to aidesaperecidos is still pending in Spanish society which is very much indebted to these victims", underlines the director. (HANDLE).
