If you’re looking to delve into the exciting universe of the Spanish language, our first recommendation is to get closer to the greatest exponents of its artistic expression. More specifically, the literary and cinematographic works made in this language.
Spanish Express helps you to study a wide variety of feature films and novels written in Spanish. And all in a fun and entertaining manner.
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Today we will talk to you about Volver. This Spanish feature film is an excellent starting point to immerse yourself in the Spanish language while discovering our workshops 😁.
Get to know this acclaimed film by Pedro Almodóvar and delve into the rich world of the Spanish language. 🙌
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Volver
Volver is a 2006 Spanish film directed by acclaimed filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, starring Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, and Lola Dueñas.
Similar to the director’s other films, this is a story that delves unabashedly into the feminine world.
Madness, abuse, and family memory are important themes throughout the film’s running time of 120 minutes.
Volver starts off with a family reunion: sisters Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Dueñas) visit their aunt Paula (Chule Lampreave), who lives in the town where they both grew up: Alcanfor de las Infantas.
Doña Paula is an older woman, almost blind and suffering from senile dementia. Agustina (Blanca Portillo), a neighbour in the town, sometimes helps her with her housework. But, in general, the sisters are at a loss to explain how their aunt Paula manages to live alone and keep herself in a halfway decent state.
Subsequently, the action focuses on the family life of Raimundo, his partner, Paco (Antonio de la Torre), and their teenage daughter, Paula (Yohana Cobo).
Paco has just been fired from his job, which is a real misfortune for this low-income family. Depressed, he soon succumbs to alcoholism and vagrancy and finally unleashes his wildest instincts when he tries to abuse Paula sexually. In a scene that is cleverly not shown to the viewer, Paula manages to defend herself against her abuser and kills him with a kitchen knife.
Paula, in a state of shock, tells Raimunda what happened. The mother decides to take responsibility for the murder and confesses to her daughter that Paco was not her biological father.
Simultaneously, a close family neighbour, Emilio (Carlos Blanco), who owns a restaurant, has to leave on a trip. After giving Raimunda the keys to the restaurant, he asks her to keep an eye out for a potential buyer while he is away.
The restaurant will be the scene of Raimunda’s redemption. On the one hand, she will use it to hide Paco’s corpse; on the other, by working as a cook, she will be able to stay afloat in her precarious economic situation.
To complete the tragedy, Doña Paula dies of old age, and Raimunda, shocked by the situation of Paco’s murder and the work at the restaurant, is prevented from attending the funeral. Sole goes to get her, and in the old family home, there is a ghostly encounter with Irene (Carmen Maura), Raimunda, and Sole’s mother, who is presumed dead in a fire four years earlier.
From then on, we see these two women, Raimunda and Sole, each facing her circumstances. And although the bond that unites them is powerful, neither of them confesses to the other the situation they are going through. Namely: Paco’s death and the encounter with the deceased mother.
Volver is, above all, a highly crafted and richly nuanced film. Her impeccable performances led to her winning, jointly with the entire cast of actresses, the award for best female performance at the Cannes Film Festival. Penélope Cruz also received her first Oscar nomination.
Pedro Almodóvar
This acclaimed Spanish director was born on 25 September 1949 in Calzada de la Calatrava, a small town in Ciudad Real.
She grew up in an environment surrounded by many women. For this reason, several of his films explore the female universe from different points of view.
When he turned 18, he moved to Madrid to enrol at the Film School, but his intentions were frustrated due to the enrolment period already ending.
Alongside an office job at the Telefónica company, he frequented bars and theatres and became fully immersed in the so-called “movida madrileña“.
In the theatre group Los Goliardos, he met the actress Carmen Maura, who would later become one of his favourite “muses”. His collaborations include Entre tinieblas, Matador, and, of course, Volver.
In 1978 she began her film career with the short film Salomé. Her first film, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón, was released in October 1980.
In the mid-1980s, in partnership with his brother Agustín, Pedro Almodóvar founded the production company El deseo. Since then, all of Almodóvar’s films have been made under this label.
International fame came in 1988 with Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). This comedy and satire film won several Goya awards and an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.
Pedro Almodóvar won the highest award, the seventh art, in 2000, thanks to his film Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother). Many critics consider this film to be his masterpiece.
Among his most acclaimed films are Hable con ella, La mala educación, Volver, La piel que habito and Dolor y gloria.
Today, Pedro Almodóvar continues to direct and innovate by capturing Spanish reality. As a result, he is considered one of the most original and important directors of the last decades worldwide.
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Spanish Express offers different Spanish A-Level programmes for adolescents and adults as part of our language tuition services.
We provide an online learning experience for students across the globe with our Spanish A-Level Private Tuition.
You can prepare for the Pearson Edexcel Spanish A level with us and take the exam for the Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Spanish in our London exam centre!
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With these workshops, you will be very well prepared and ready to take the Pearson Edexcel Paper 2: Written response to works and translation in Spanish.
Please contact us for a free consultation whether you need help with Spanish individual private tuition, the Spanish academic year programme, or simply general information about Spanish Film & Literature workshops or the Spanish Homestay Immersion Programmes in Spain.
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Ginnette Di Damaso
Spanish Express Blogger
