Q&A: Almodóvar on unearthing the past in ‘Parallel Mothers’

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers” stars Penelope Cruz and Milena Smit as young mothers who meet at the hospital and whose babies are accidentally switched at birth. This secret plays out in unpredictable ways while the film also investigates another hidden past: Spain’s mass graves from the Spanish Civil War. In recent years, a national dialogue in Spain has brought renewed interest and political discord over exhuming the graves from Francisco Franco’s regime. “Parallel Mothers” is the 72-year-old director’s most politically introspective movie and his first to grapple with the legacy of Franco’s reign. Almodóvar emerged as a filmmaker in Spain’s liberated post-Franco years. The film opens in select theaters Friday.