Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother). 1999. Spain. Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. With Cecillia Roth, Marisa Pardes, Toni Cantó, Antonia San Juan, Penelope Cruz. DCP. In Spanish; English subtitles. 101 min.
Manuela (Cecilia Roth) works in a Madrid hospital, where she persuades bereaved family members to donate the organs of their deceased loved ones. One night, she takes her teenage son Esteban to see a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire. Esteban is so captivated by actress Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes) that he runs to obtain her autograph after the show, but he is killed accidentally. All of a sudden, Manuela finds herself on the more difficult side of the transplant conversation. Grief-stricken, she travels to Barcelona to find Esteban’s father, now a transsexual prostitute named Lola (Toni Cantó). This is where she runs into another transsexual friend, Agrado (Antonia San Juan), and a pregnant young nun named Sister Rosa (Penelope Cruz). Coincidentally, Huma Rojo has also arrived to continue her performance tour. Each woman will provide comfort to one another in this deeply felt portrait of sisterhood and compassion. The film won several major international awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.