PAIN AND GLORY tells of a series of re-encounters experienced by Salvador Mallo, a film director in his physical decline. Some of them in the flesh, others remembered: his childhood in the 60s, when he emigrated with his parents to a village in Valencia in search of prosperity, the first desire, his first adult love in the Madrid of the 80s, the pain of the breakup of that love while it was still alive and intense, writing as the only therapy to forget the unforgettable, the early discovery of cinema, and the void, the infinite void that creates the incapacity to keep on making films. PAIN AND GLORY talks about creation, about the difficulty of separating it from one’s own life and about the passions that give it meaning and hope. In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it, and in that need he also finds his salvation.

Quite unintentionally, PAIN AND GLORY is the third part of a spontaneously created trilogy that has taken 32 years to complete. The first two parts are LAW AND DESIRE and BAD EDUCATION. In these films, the protagonists are film directors. Desire and cinematic fiction are the pillars of these films, but the way in which fiction is glimpsed alongside reality differs in each one of them. Fiction and life are two sides of the one coin, and life always includes pain and desire.

Pedro Almodóvar was born in Calzada de Calatrava, in the heart of La Mancha, in the 50s. At 17, he left home and moved to Madrid, with no money and no job, but with a very specific project in mind: to study cinema and direct films. It was impossible to enrol in the official film school because Franco had just closed it, so he worked at many sporadic jobs until he could buy his first Super-8mm camera. This personal explosion coincided with the arrival of the democracy in the late 70s, early 80s. That was the period the world knew as La Movida.
After a year and a half of eventful shooting on 16mm, in 1980 he opened PEPI, LUCI, BOM, a no-budget film made as a co-operative effort with the rest of the crew and the cast, all beginners, except for Carmen Maura.
In 1986, he founded the production company El Deseo with his brother Agustín. Their first project was LAW OF DESIRE. Since then, they have produced all the films that Pedro has written and directed. They have also produced other talented directors such as Lucrecia Martel, Alex de la Iglesia, Guillermo del Toro, Isabel Coixet or Damián Szifrón.

Filmography:
2019 - PAIN AND GLORY
2016 - JULIETA
2013 - I’M SO EXCITED!
2011 - THE SKIN I LIVE IN
2009 - BROKEN EMBRACES
2006 - VOLVER
2004 - BAD EDUCATION
2001 - TALK TO HER
1999 - ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
1997 - LIVE FLESH
1995 - THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET
1993 - KIKA
1991 - HIGH HEELS
1989 - TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!
1987 - WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
1986 - LAW OF DESIRE
1985 - MATADOR
1984 - WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?!
1983 - DARK HABITS
1982 - LABYRINTH OF PASSIONS
1980 - PEPI, LUCI, BOM