Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) betrays the confidence of her grieving friend Natalia to pen a new screenplay. Years later, her story appears to inform that of fellow filmmaker Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia). Also stealing a confidante’s truth to spin fiction, Raúl resembles Almodóvar himself in this frank and fearless confession. For more than half a century, revered Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s films have mixed his unique cocktail of melodrama, queerness, self-reflection and fabulously out-there interior design. All these themes and more coalesce around Bitter Christmas, one of his most personal films yet. Recalling the mortality-minded Pain and Glory (2019), it also explores writers’ responsibilities in harnessing real lives. Plagued by migraines, frustrated filmmaker Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) mines the death of her mother and the tragedy of her friend Natalia (Milena Smit) for a screenplay. Twenty years later, Almodóvar stand-in Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia) writes a suspiciously similar story placing him at odds with his loyal assistant, Mónica (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). But who is fact and who is fiction in this deeply personal, Palme d’Or-nominated reckoning with art and life, also featuring Almodóvar stalwart Rossy de Palma.