Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodóvar (Spain, b. 1951) single-handedly represents the revival of Spanish cinema as part of the cultural flowering of the Movida Madrileña in the 1980s. New York was first to hail the unbridled imagination of this provocative director, whose films are filled with transsexuals, neurotics (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, 1988) and even drug-addicted nuns (The Law of Desire, 1987). In his maturity Almodóvar has continued to draw inspiration from his underprivileged childhood in a remote corner of La Mancha, making melodramas bursting with heightened passions expressed by unforgettable actors such as Penelope Cruz (All About My Mother, 1999; Broken Embraces, 2009) and Gael García Bernal (Bad Education, 2004).