No matter how hard you try to silence it, human history never shuts up – Eduardo Galeano
This is the quote that ends Pedro Almodovar’s latest film ‘Parallel Mothers’ and it fits a film whose principal theme is the recovery of truth.
The plot is simple . Two mothers a pregnant at the same time in a hospital in Madrid. One discovers that the baby she is caring for is not hers and suspects it belongs to the other mother. However, when she discovers the other baby has died, she becomes reluctant to tell the truth and part from the child she has treated as her own.
At the same time, there is a parallel story that involves the campaign to dig in an area believed to be the site of a mass grave during the Spanish Civil War. If they are allowed to dig many women will know the fate of their fathers and finally have a chance to bury them with dignity.
Both stories involve the importance of facing up to the truth, however painful it may be. Up to this point Spain has not wanted to address the horrors of the Civil War for fear of picking over old wounds but such a silence can never hold, and the historical memory movement, which contains such writers as Javier Cercas, has attempted to confront the past. In his way Almodovar’s film attempts to do likewise and give the 100,000 Spaniards who died in unmarked graves a chance to be reclaimed
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