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Gifts from The Morning Star
Parallel Mothers
MARIA DUARTE recommends a subtle and compelling drama about motherhood and the missing thousands executed by Franco’s forces, buried in unmarked graves

Parallel Mothers (15) 
Directed by Pedro Almodovar

THERE is always a lot more depth and subtext to renowned Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s work than meets the eye, and Parallel Mothers is no exception.

Through the complexities of motherhood he addresses a painful part of Spain’s history yet to be resolved: the thousands of missing victims snatched and executed by Franco’s Falangists and buried in unmarked mass graves, whose families who are desperate to find and inter them properly. 

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