Amarga navidad

Pedro Almodóvar's Amarga navidad centres on Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), a commercial director who loses her mother. She tries to suppress her grief by throwing herself into her work, until migraines force her to stop working. She leaves for Lanzarote with her friend Patricia, while her boyfriend Bonifacio stays behind in Madrid. In parallel, we follow filmmaker Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a screenwriter penning Elsa's story on a meta level. In doing so, the film plays with the idea of autofiction – a mix of autobiography and fiction – as Almodóvar explores how life and art bleed into each other.