Volver(2006)
Sony Pictures Classics Nov 3, 2006
After her death, a mother returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life.
Release Details
- Nov 3, 2006 | Moderate
- Nov 3, 2006 | Limited
- Jan 26, 2007 | Moderate
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2026-10-25T14:20:22.351Z
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$202,000
$12,899,867
$72,704,229
$85,605,851
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Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: Spain
Language: Spanish
Summaries
Plot Summary
- Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Duenas) are sisters who grew up in Alcanfor De Las Infantas, a small village in La Mancha, but now both live in Madrid. Their parents had died in a fire three years before.Raimunda and Sole come to the village from time to time with Raimunda's daughter Paula.The women of the village have the tradition of staying alive a lot longer than their men. Raimunda and Sole go to the cemetery and work to polish the graves with the other women of the village.The people of the village buy a burial plot and care for it all their lives as it becomes a second home for them.Raimunda had argued with Aunt Paula to get her to shift to an old age home. But Aunt Paula steadfastly refused to leave her home and eventually passed away in the same place. Aunt Paula also indicates that she is being served by her neighbor Aunt Agustine and Raimunda's mother Irene. Raimunda ignores the comment but Sole goes to inspect Aunt Paula's home and finds traces of her mother Irene's fragrance in the upstairs room and bathroom.Aunt Agustine says that for Aunt Paula, Irene is still not dead and leaves it at that. Agustine assures Sole and Raimunda that she will continue to look after Aunt Paula.On their way back, Sole tells Raimunda that she found an exercise bike in the room upstairs, which makes no sense as Aunt Paula cannot even walk properly.Sole returns for the funeral of her elderly, dementia-stricken Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave).Aunt Paula's neighbor Agustina (Blanca Portillo) confesses to Sole that she has heard Paula talking to the ghost of their mother Irene (Carmen Maura). Sole encounters the ghost herself, and when she returns to Madrid, she discovers that the ghost has stowed away in the trunk of her car.Sole lets Irene stays with her to assist at the illicit hair salon Sole operates out of her apartment, posing as a Russian immigrant who doesn't speak Spanish. The two conceal Irene's presence from Raimunda, who hates her mother.Irene says that she wants to know why Raimunda hates her, and why she is afraid to reveal herself to Raimunda.Meanwhile, Raimunda and her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) have a different death to cope with. Paula's father Paco (Antonio De La Torre) loses his job and decides to stay at home till he finds another job. Paco notices that Paula has grown into a young woman and lusts after her. He even watches her secretly change clothes in her room and fantasizes about her while he has sex with Raimunda.Paco attempts to sexually assault her while Raimunda was away for work, claiming that he is not really her father, and Paula stabs him in self-defense. Raimunda returns home to find Paula waiting for her at the bus station. As they walk back home, Paula narrates to Raimunda how Paco tried to assault her.Raimunda hides the corpse in the deep-freezer of a nearby restaurant with an absent owner, Emilio (Carlos Blanco). When members of a film crew come to the restaurant to cater for a week's meals, the resourceful Raimunda strikes a deal to earn much needed money in her husband's absence.Raimunda reveals to Paula that Paco was not her biological father and promises to tell her the whole story later. Meanwhile, diagnosed with terminal cancer, Agustina comes to Madrid for treatment. Raimunda visits her in the hospital. Agustina asks Raimunda if she has seen her mother's ghost. Agustina hopes that the ghost will be able to tell her about her own mother, who disappeared three years before. Leaving Paula with Sole, with the help of two paid suitably unquestioning female neighbors, Raimunda rents a van and transports the freezer containing the body to a spot by the river Jucar, where they bury it.While staying in Sole's apartment, Paula meets her grandmother's ghost and grows close to her. The next night, Agustina comes to the restaurant, and Raimunda reveals two startling secrets: her father and Agustina's mother were having an affair, and Agustina's mother disappeared on the same day that Raimunda's parents died.Sole tells Raimunda that she has seen their mother's ghost, who is in the next room with Paula. Irene admits that she did not, in fact, die in the fire, and reveals the whole truth. The reason for Raimunda and Irene's estrangement is that Raimunda's father sexually abused her, resulting in the birth of Paula. Thus, Paula is Raimunda's daughter and her sister. Irene tells Raimunda that she did not know about the abuse until Aunt Paula told her about it and never forgave herself for failing to stop it.Irene explains that she found her husband in bed with another woman and started the fire that killed them both. The ashes that had been presumed to be Irene's were, in fact, the ashes of Agustina's mother, the woman with whom Irene's husband was having an affair. After the fire, Irene wandered for several days in the countryside, until she decided that she wanted to turn herself in. But first, she wanted to say goodbye to Aunt Paula, who had lost the ability to look after herself and with whom Irene had been living prior to setting the fire.Paula welcomed Irene home as if nothing had happened, and Irene stayed, caring for her sister and expecting that the police would come soon to arrest her. Due to the superstitious and closed nature of the community, however, the police never came and the residents, accustomed to tales of the dead returning, explained the rare sightings of Irene as a ghost.The family reunites at Aunt Paula's house. Irene reveals her presence to Agustina, who continues to believe her to be a ghost. As penance, Irene pledges to stay in the village and care for Agustina as her cancer worsens, saying to Raimunda that it is the least she can do after killing Agustina's mother. Raimunda and her mother embrace and promise to repair their relationship, with Raimunda regularly visiting her mother at Agustina's house.
Storyline
- Raimunda, her daughter Paula and her sister Sole travel from Madrid to the windy and superstitious village of Alcanfor de las Infantas to visit the grave of their mother Irene, who died years ago in a fire with her husband. Then they visit Irene's sister Paula, an old senile aunt that raised Raimunda after the death of her parents that insists to tell them that Irene is alive and living with her; later, they go to the house of her neighbor and friend Agustina, who gives a support to Paula. They return to Madrid, and after a hard day of work, Raimunda meets her daughter completely distraught at the bus stop waiting for her. When they arrive home, Paula tells her mother that she killed her unemployed father Paco, who was completely drunk and tried to rape her. While Raimunda hides his body, Sole calls her to tell that their beloved aunt Paula has died. The next morning, Sole travels alone to the funeral, and when she returns to Madrid, she finds her mother hidden in the trunk of her car. She brings Irene to her apartment, where secrets from the past are disclosed. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Having weathered a series of bad relationships and traumas, Raimunda and her sister Sole remain close as they continue to mourn their mother Irene, who died years ago in a suspicious house fire. When Raimunda's wastlascivious husband Paco unforgivably betrays her and her beloved daughter, he not-so-mysteriously disappears. Determined to keep her family together, Raimunda's resourcefulness and strength of character shift into overdrive just in time for additional family tragedies and unresolved conflicts to call upon her and Sole to return home. Multiple generations of women reunite to mourn their losses, mend old rifts, and harness the healing powers of their collective resilience in the face of age-old adversities. With nods to MILDRED PIERCE and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, VOLVER celebrates those rites and beliefs designed keep ancestors close and the wisdom of generations intact. — Mae Moreno Raimunda is on the verge of a nervous breakdown: While her husband Paco is relaxing at home, she rushes from one job to the next. But when she returns from her cleaning job at the airport, she finds Paco dead on the kitchen floor - stabbed to death by her daughter Paula, who grabbed a knife in self-defense when her father tried to rape her. While Raimunda disposes of the body and, on the side, gets a restaurant that's up for sale back on its feet, she has to lie to her sister Sole and take care of an aunt's funeral. As if that weren't enough, her mother Irene - whom she believed to be dead - suddenly reappears, carrying with her a long-kept family secret... Raimunda desperately tries to keep her composure and prevent her life from falling completely apart. But events come thick and fast, and she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into a vortex of lies, secrets, and surprising revelations. — Arte Raimunda lives in Madrid with her daughter Paula and her husband Paco, who is always drunk. Her sister, Sole, is separated and works clandestinely as a hairstylist for women. The two sisters lost their parents in a fire in La Mancha, their birth village, years ago. Their aunt, Paula, still lives in the village and continues to speak about her sister Irene, mother of the two sisters, as if she were still alive. When the old aunt dies the situation changes and the past returns(volver) in a twist of mystery and suspense. — 1felco
