Film Forum

Spain, 1983
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
With Julieta Serrano, Marisa Paredes, Chus Lampreave
In Spanish with Engish subtitles
Approx. 114 min. DCP.

Rejected from Cannes for being sacrilegious in its critical depiction of Catholicism’s role in modern Spanish society and marking a major tone shift in Pedro Almodóvar’s filmmaking in the midst of The Movida Madrileña. This piercing psychedelic tale follows cabaret singer Yolanda as she finds refuge in an eccentric convent at risk of financial collapse where the nuns call themselves The Humiliated Redeemers. There, she finds herself among chain-smoking sisters, a pet tiger that can only be soothed by a young Carmen Maura (WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, VOLVER) playing bongos, and erotic novel smugglers with mustache hairs that blow in the wind. These characters enable each other’s vices and neuroses as they maintain the illusion of seeking salvation under the wing of The Mother Superior, their drug and love addicted leader who uses the mission as a means of luring in needy women. From the deteriorating convent emerges a potent yet playful reminder that we are all sinners that need to be loved.

Presented with support from the Robert E. Appel Fund for Spanish and Portuguese Language Films

Reviews

“There is no preaching here, but when, with the forces of propriety cracking down on their disorderly order, the chaplain prays that they may continue to live 'in the same healthy anarchy,' you may find yourself uttering an amused amen.”
– The New York Times