Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Pepa and Iván are voice actors who dub foreign films into Spanish. After a long relationship, Iván leaves Pepa abruptly, and she sets out to find him so she can tell him something important. Her search brings her into contact with his former wife and her son, while her friend Candela, who has become entangled with terrorists, hides from the police. Back at Pepa's apartment, which she has decided to rent out, a steady stream of unexpected visitors turns her personal crisis into a tangle of overlapping misunderstandings.

Pedro Almodóvar wrote, directed and produced the film, the third of the twenty-two features he has directed in chronological order, following Law of Desire and preceding Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!. Carmen Maura plays Pepa, with Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, María Barranco, Rossy de Palma and Kiti Mánver among the cast. It was released in March 1988 and runs eighty-eight minutes.

The film took about seven million dollars worldwide, a strong result for a Spanish production of its time. Audiences rate it 7.5 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly fifty thousand votes, and 7.4 out of 10 on TMDB from just over a thousand votes. A critics' rating of 7.7 out of 10 from thirty-five reviews places it slightly above both audience scores.