09.12.25, 20:30, Law of Desire (1987)

Pedro Almodóvar. Seven years after his film debut with Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980), his atypical and controversial film style enjoyed its first international success with the premiere of La Ley del Deseo/Law of Desire. In this film, released by his own production company El Deseo, Almodóvar succeeded in winning over previously sceptical critics and audiences with his explicit themes of obsessive love, confusing adultery, violent machismo and unadulterated queerness.

La Ley del Deseo tells the turbulent story of Pablo Quintero (Eusebio Poncela), a successful filmmaker whose love life spirals out of control when he enters into a complex love triangle with the younger Juan (Miguel Molina) and the jealous Antonio (Antonio Banderas). Although themes such as masculinity and homosexuality put Almodóvar's oeuvre on the map, in the character of Tina (Carmen Maura), Pablo's sister, we find the familiar and beloved image of “La Chica Almodóvar”: colourful, passionate and full of secrets. For those who long for Almodóvar at the end of “la Movida madrileña”, the period of artistic freedom after the fall of Franco: a time long gone, before he had discovered the English language.

This film will be introduced by communication scientist Salma Mediavilla Aboulaoula.