Volver (2006) — film review

A Magical Realist glance into the originally Spanish society

Volver (meaning “to go back”) is a 2006 Spanish comedy-drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The film features an ensemble cast that also includes Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave. Revolving around an eccentric family of women from a wind-swept region south of Madrid, Cruz stars as Raimunda, a working-class woman forced to go to great lengths to protect her 14-year-old daughter Paula. To top off the family crisis, her mother Irene returns from the dead to tie up loose ends.

(Source: Wikipedia)

This was my first Almodóvar film. I pretty much liked it because I found it unique and creative, directed characteristically in its own way. Although it covered some surreal elements such as mystery and superstition, it was actually more than real in depicting the little society of a small town in Castilla — La Mancha, the region where Almodóvar is from. For me, this movie is realistic and unrealistic at the same time, and I think this is the reason why I like it — Magical Realism is always fascinating.

There are three particular elements that I noticed when watching Volver. The first and the most obvious, this was a women-dominated story. I’ve never seen such a movie, where all important characters were female, and the few male characters were often portrayed as impotent or negative, like Paco, Raimunda’s husband, being portrayed as a raper.

The next element was the implicit foreshadow and repetitions throughout the movie. There were two scenes filming Raimunda washing a knife. The first scene happened when Raimunda was cooking for Paco after coming back from the cemetery. The second scene followed the death of Paco, when her daughter accidentally killed him and she was trying to wash off his blood from the knife. It seemed that the first knife-washing scene was foretelling Paco being killed, but the audience wouldn’t realize it until the second scene took place. This was such a brilliant and sophisticated cinematic technique. Furthermore, the repetition continued after that: when Raimunda was preparing the final supper for the crew, there was a shot emphasizing her cutting tomatoes, which were also as red as blood, as if she were cutting into a human’s body. This perfectly echoed the killing accident and the two knife-washing scenes.

Finally, the third element was actually intercorrelated with the second, which was the use of strong colours, especially red. Red was so much emphasized in Volver. For instance, red blood or tomato slices on the knife, bloody-red cars, and unusually red clothes. The presence of the red colour was usually accompanied by repetition of similar shots, which again echoed previous incidents by giving out strong feelings and subtle familiarity.

Volver also provided sufficient insights into the Spanish society. Apart from people being superstitious, villagers’ mutual trust and “self-governed” approaches were presented as well. Since the villagers were so close to each other, they managed their own businesses, not by any law or government. When Paco was killed, instead of resorting to the police, Raimunda handled it all by herself. Furthermore, when told that Paco “suddenly left for good”, everyone seemed to believe this senseless statement, without a single doubt. They didn’t even find out the truth when helping Raimunda to move the fridge or dig a hole, showing their full trust toward each other. Some more detailed settings might as well suggested Spaniards’ disobedience to the law. For example, Raimunda took over the restaurant without the owner’s consent; Sole, Raimunda’s sister opened the barbershop in her house to avoid taxes. They seemed to have nothing to do with the government.

In Volver, Almodóvar constructed a fascinating little world — not only a magical town full of mysteries and superstitions, but at the same time, a common village that could be anywhere in Spain, and that was so real to life. therefore, following the Magical Realist portrait of this vivid little town, I was able to have a fantastic glance into the originally Spanish society.

(This is an edited version of one of my film reviews from the course “Never Too Many Movies: Spanish & Catalan Society through Cinema” during my exchange at ESADE Business School in Barcelona.)