Law of Desire

Law of Desire is a Spanish film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Pablo Quintero is a successful film director whose relationship with his younger lover, Juan, has left him dissatisfied. He throws himself into a new project: a monologue to be performed by his sister Tina, with whom he shares a complicated history. Meanwhile, the reserved young Antonio becomes fixated on Pablo and pursues him with an intensity that turns possessive, drawing the two men and those around them toward violence. Eusebio Poncela plays Pablo, Carmen Maura plays Tina, and Antonio Banderas plays Antonio, alongside Miguel Molina as Juan, Fernando Guillén as a detective and Manuela Velasco as Ada.

The film was released in February 1987 and runs 102 minutes. Almodóvar wrote the screenplay, and his brother Agustín Almodóvar produced it for the companies Laurenfilm and El Deseo. It belongs to an early stretch of the director's career: it is the second of 22 films he has directed, following Matador and preceding Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in chronological order.

Reception data place the film favourably. On TMDB it holds a rating of 7.1 out of 10 from 338 votes. A critics' rating of 7.5 out of 10 rests on 13 reviews, slightly above the audience score. Worldwide box office came to about 1 million US dollars. The credited cast numbers 29.