Bad Education (35mm)

Co-Presented by Frameline

Set in the shadow of Franco-era repression, Pedro Almodóvar’s tale of desire and betrayal traces the lasting damage of religious abuse, where the past refuses to stay buried.

Pedro Almodóvar’s feverish noir-melodrama shifts between past and present, fantasy and reality, real life and “reel” life as it untangles the complex relationship between two men—a filmmaker and a screenwriter who first fell in love as teenagers in Catholic school—and the abusive priest who upended their lives. Built around a chameleonic performance from Gael García Bernal (in a bravura triple role), Bad Education is a dizzying, Hitchcockian mystery of sex, identity, and cinema.

Part of Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair, a global series presented in partnership with the American Cinematheque.