Pedro Almod var (Spain, b. 1951) single-handedly represents the revival of Spanish cinema as part of the cultural flowering of the Movida Madrile a in the 1980s. New York was first to hail the unbridled imagination of this provocative director, whose films are filled with transsexuals, neurotics Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, 1988) and even drug-addicted nuns (The Law of Desire, 1987). In his maturity Almod var has continued to draw inspiration from his underprivileged childhood in a remote corner of La Mancha, making melodramas bursting with heightened passions expressed by unforgettable actors such as Penelope Cruz (All About My Mother, 1999; Broken Embraces, 2009) and Gael Garc a Bernal (Bad Education, 2004).