Volver

Volver follows Raimunda, a working mother in Madrid who holds down several jobs while her husband is unemployed, and her sister Sole, who runs a small hair salon. Their lives are upended when Raimunda's teenage daughter Paula stabs her stepfather during an attempted assault, and Raimunda chooses to cover up the killing rather than turn the girl in. Around the same time, the sisters' mother Irene, believed to have died in a fire with her husband, reappears and takes refuge with Sole. Set partly in La Mancha and partly in a Madrid neighbourhood shaped by migration from other Spanish regions, the film is structured around three generations of women and the secrets they keep.

Pedro Almodóvar wrote and directed the film, his twelfth of twenty-two in chronological order, made between Bad Education and Broken Embraces. Penélope Cruz plays Raimunda, with Carmen Maura as Irene, Lola Dueñas as Sole, Blanca Portillo as Agustina, Yohana Cobo as Paula and Chus Lampreave as Aunt Paula. The production had a budget of nine million dollars and grossed around eighty-six million worldwide, a strong return. It is rated 7.6 on IMDb and 7.5 on TMDB, while critics gave it 8.1, a warmer reception than the general audience.