A Movie for Women: 'Volver'

Volver is a strong, traditional Spanish film. The motifs of the film are inherently Spanish, as evidenced by the bright, bold colors, especially the shade of red that appears throughout the movie. And yet, in spite of this, the film has reached an incredibly wide audience in many different, non-Spanish speaking countries, including America. Even director Pedro Almodovar spoke in an interview about the universal appeal of the film. “It moves the audience more than the other fifteen [films],” he said.
One thing that attracts foreign audiences is the presence of strong female characters. There is a line at the very beginning of the movie, “The women here live longer than the men,” which denotes the strength of women in this film. Audiences have been striving for such strong women in film for a long while, and seeing Raimunda, a woman who believes in her inner strength more than anything, being so in control of the horror surrounding her is not only attractive to foreign audiences, but incredibly worthy of viewing. As Raimunda disposes of Paco’s body, we are overwhelmed with pride as an audience because she is protecting her child at all costs. Such circumstances are not solely Spanish, but universal.
The major factor of appeal for this film is the theme of mother-daughter relations. Almodovar said, “The emotions with your mother are the same everywhere.” The brilliant dynamic that Almodovar uses to depict mother-daughter relationships are universal. Raimunda and Sole’s relationship with their mother’s ‘spirit’ is demonstrative of how, regardless of how one may fight, a woman’s mother stays with her forever. Agustina’s dream of being reunited with her mother speaks poignantly to me in particular, as there is no tie stronger than that of a mother and daughter.
Almodovar’s film breaks any cultural convention, bringing foreign audiences of all kinds together with the universal themes and characters that are so bold and strong. These women, and their circumstances, strike the audience, regardless of what language they speak, at their hearts, and that is universal.