It’s been three years since celebrated Spanish filmmaker and writer Pedro Almodóvar’s last film, the pulsing thriller Julieta. Almodovar returns with something completely different – the beautiful, aching Pain & Glory. 

Though it’s hitting a different, intriguing stride, the drama stars some of Almodóvar’s closest collaborators, Antonia Banderas (who led the stark psychological horror The Skin I Live In) and Pénelope Cruz (Volver). It’s the autobiographical tale of a Spanish director, Salvador Mallo, and sees him revisit moments and life choices from childhood to adulthood, across the 1960s to 1980s in Madrid. As he physically and emotionally declines, he interrogates his young life in a Valencian village where his parents pursued prosperity, his first love and breakup in 80s Madrid, and the intense period of writing he did as therapy. Mallo searches through his early career in cinema, for meaning, and the opportunity to fill a void. 

“Pain & Glory talks about creation,” the film synopsis reads. “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.”

Pain & Glory’s trailer, in a UK exclusive on Dazed, is a wordless glimpse at the drama, beginning with Banderas as Mallo, underwater in a swimming pool. It jumps across different life stages, showing Mallo as a young boy, teen, and adult, interacting mostly with his mother (Cruz) and people in his life who have influenced him. Italian singer Mina Mazzini soundtracks the visually stunning trailer with “Come sinfonia”, with sweeping, short shots of school days, women washing sheets in rivers, cinema screenings, and domestic life. 

An original score has been composed by Alberto Iglesias, who worked on Almodóvar’s Volver, The Skin I Live In, and Julieta. With Banderas and Cruz in starring roles, it also sees Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Nora Navas, and Julieta Serrano appear.

The film will be released in UK cinemas August 23