Penelope Cruz won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in Parallel Mothers, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It follows two ladies who give birth on the same day in the same hospital, and something happens that forever binds their destiny. with Pedro Almodóvar, director With him at the helm, you can always count on a humorous melodramatic storey about Spanish women, but his most recent film delivered even more. He integrated the history of the Spanish Civil War and how it has influenced Spain to this day into the storey of motherhood. If you’re eager for more stories about the rich tapestry left behind by a strong maternal streak, war, and melodrama after viewing his latest masterwork, below are some films like Parallel Mothers.
1. Volver (2006)
Director- Pedro Almodovar
Raimunda and her sister Sole have remained close through a string of disastrous relationships and traumas. They continue to grieve their mother Irene, who perished in a suspected house fire years ago. Paco, Raimunda’s lustful husband, unforgivably betrays her and her darling daughter, and then suddenly vanishes. Raimunda’s resourcefulness and strength of character go into overdrive as she tries to keep her family together. Just in time for further family tragedies and unresolved problems to force her and Sole to return home. Several generations of women get together to mourn their losses, bridge old rifts, and tap into the healing qualities of their collective resilience in the face of adversity. VOLVER honours those ceremonies and beliefs that keep ancestors near and the wisdom of generations intact, with allusions to MILDRED PIERCE and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.
2. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Director- Guillermo del Toro
In the post-Civil War Spain of 1944, rebels are still fighting Falangist troops in the mountains. Ofelia, a young and imaginative girl, travels to the countryside with her sick and expectant mother, Carmen Vidal. They go to meet and live with her stepfather, the vicious and violent Captain Vidal, in an old mill. During the night, Ofelia encounters a fairy and the two of them travel to a pit in the middle of a maze. Where they meet a faun who informs them that she is a princess from a subterranean realm. He also informs her that her father is waiting for her. But she must first do three unpleasant, difficult, and risky tasks.
Meanwhile, she befriends the servant Mercedes. She happens to be the sister of one of the rebels and is actually supporting the organisation. Ofelia lives her magical world in a dark, harsh, and dangerous world, attempting to complete her chores and reuniting with her father and king.
3. Imitation of Life (1959)
Director- Douglas Sirk
Susie, Lora Meredith’s 6-year-old daughter, is a failing actress. Annie Johnson, an African American woman, is hired as a maid. Sarah Jane, Annie’s 8-year-old daughter, meets Susie right away. Sarah Jane has fair complexion and tries to pass herself off as white at school and in social situations. Because of the racial legislation and social mores of the time, this works in her favour. Her mother, on the other hand, is keen to point out that Sarah Jane is her daughter, which is a hindrance to her. Lora is now a Broadway star, and she has been for the past ten years. Susie is smitten with an old flame, Steve Archer, who has reappeared in her life. Sarah Jane is attempting to make her place in the world, both socially and professionally, but her idealistic, hard-headed, obsessive mother continues to embarrass and obstruct her.
4. Roma (2018)
Director- Alfonso Cuaron
A modest but quick transformation is coming to Mexico City’s posh Colonia Roma neighbourhood. As a seemingly typical business trip to Quebec sets the way for a devastating heartbreak, the lives of two women—the dedicated live-in maid and housekeeper of Mixteco heritage, Cleo, and her academic employer, Sofa—become irrevocably interwoven. Over the course of a year, from the quadrennial 1970s World Cup to the bloody Corpus Christi Massacre, Sofa and Cleo’s everyday routines are peppered with unforeseen and sometimes terrible complications of love; a new life amid death, and an almost stubborn desire to find good in evil. Life always finds a way, even in the face of irreversible changes and frightening disclosures.
5. Cria Cuervos (1976)
Director- Carlos Saura
Ana, an 8-year-old orphan, believes she is to blame for the death of her father, an uninvolved, disloyal military officer, during the final years of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. Ana and her sisters Irene and Maite move reside with their grandmother and Aunt Paulina after their mother’s tragic death and strive to adjust to their new life against the backdrop of a confined childhood. She seeks refuge in her darkly lit chamber by mingling memories with fiction, as she forms a sick relationship with what appears to be a ghost, through a series of dream-like episodes. Ana’s desperate endeavour to conquer life’s insurmountable obstacles.
6. Far From Heaven (2002)
Director- Todd Haynes
Cathy is the ideal 50s housewife, with healthy children, a prosperous husband, and social standing. Then she sees her husband, Frank, kissing another guy one night, and her orderly world begins to unravel. In her bewilderment and sadness, she finds solace in Raymond, their African-American gardener – a socially unacceptable relationship that leads to the further dissolution of life as she knew it. Cathy and Frank’s battle to keep their marriage afloat is complicated by the fact of his homosexuality and her emotions for Raymond, which opens a painful, if more honest, chapter in their lives.
7. 20th Century Women (2016)
Director- Mike Mills
Love, life, and the challenges of raising a son in the late 1970s. The needs of a young man attempting to discover his own character and convictions versus the naivety of a free spirit. His mother tries to develop bonds that he cannot deal with while living in a bohemian household with three like-minded passionate people to help pay the rent. She can’t cope with his incapacity to communicate, so she enlists the support of other women in his life to help shoulder the burden of his parenting. Life slowly unravels for them all, and they have no idea why. Despite their apparent difficulties, they all go on to enjoy well-defined lives free of major consequences.
8. Terms of Endearment (1983)
Director- James L. Brooks
Aurora and Emma are a mother and daughter marching to the beat of their own drums. Aurora demonstrates how difficult and loving she can be, beginning with Emma’s marriage. The film follows them over several years as they discover new reasons to live and find joy. The scenes with Garrett Breedlove, a retired astronaut and Aurora’s next-door neighbour, are particularly remarkable. Finally, various people express their love in a variety of ways.
9. Incendies (2010)
Director- Denis Villeneuve
When Jeanne and Simon, twin siblings, are called before a notary for the reading of their mother Nawal’s will, long-buried secrets are about to be revealed. Suddenly, Jeanne is required to send a sealed letter to a father she has never met, somewhere in the Middle East; similarly, Simon is required to convey an equally vital message to an unknown brother the twins are unaware of. One is adamant about discovering the truth, while the other is hesitant. However, a promise is a promise, and the siblings will never find peace unless they journey to their mother’s birthplace.
10. Broken Embraces (2009)
Director- Pedro Almodovar
Passion, obsession, wealth, jealousy, family, guilt, and creativity are all words that come to me when I think of passion, obsession, wealth, and creativity. Harry Caine, a blind screenwriter in Madrid, is aided by Judit and her son Diego. When Harry learns of the death of Ernesto Martel, a wealthy businessman, and Ernesto’s son pays Harry a visit, the past rushes in. We witness Harry, who was then Mateo Blanco, a filmmaker, in a sequence of flashbacks from the 1990s; he falls in love with Ernesto’s mistress, Lena, and casts her in a film that Ernesto supports. Ernesto is envious and obsessed, sending his son to film the production of the film, to follow Lena and Mateo, and to provide him with daily footage. Lena irritates Judit. It’s a doomsday scenario.
