Venice International Film Festival 2021 will kick off from the Venice Lido or The Lido in northern Italy on September 1. Actress Penelope Cruz starrer Spanish film Madres Paralelas, also known as Parallel Mothers, is the official curtain raiser of the 78th annual event. The movie is directed by Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar.
The film follows two pregnant women –Janis and Ana, admitted to the same hospital. Both of them are single mothers, and they got pregnant accidentally. Janis is a middle-aged woman, and she does not regret it. But Ana is a teenager who is traumatized, scared, and repentant about her pregnancy.
In the movie, the central characters will share their worries and anxieties as they walk through the hospital corridors. Soon, they will get closer to each other, and Janis will try to encourage Anna during their time together. However, their lives will take some unexpected turns, and the film focuses on it.
Pedro Almodovar about opening Venice International Film Festival 2021
"I was born as a film director in 1983 in Venice in the Mezzogiorno Mezzanotte section. Thirty-eight years later I am called to open the festival. I cannot explain the joy and the honor, and how much this means to me without falling into complacency. I am very grateful to the festival for this recognition and hope to be up to it," the 71-year-old Spanish filmmaker said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Festival director Alberto Barbera said there are grateful to Almadavar for giving them the privilege to open the film festival with his new movie. According to him, it is a welcome return of the Spanish filmmaker to Venice after winning the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
"[Madres Paralelas] is an intense and sensitive portrait of two women as they contend with a pregnancy with unpredictable consequences, women's solidarity, and sexuality that is experienced in full freedom and without hypocrisy, all against the backdrop of a reflection on the ineluctable need for truth that is to be unwaveringly pursued," he added.
The movie is produced by El Desco, and it will be screened in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema on September 1.
