Pedro Almodóvar’s latest project is headed to the Cannes Film Festival.
The 73-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning director’s short film Strange Way of Life will have its world premiere at the upcoming 76th edition of the festival, which will run from May 16-27.
The Western shot in southern Spain stars Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal and is the filmmaker’s second English-language experience, after The Human Voice in 2020.
The film had been widely expected to play at Cannes after the director told singer-songwriter Dua Lipa that he expected it to premiere the festival in an interview for her At Your Service podcast in January.
The screening of Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life will be followed by a conversation with the director and the filmmaking team.
The work revolves around a reunion between a sheriff and a rancher who knew one another in a previous life.
The synopsis provided by Almodóvar and posted by the festival reads: “A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen. Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship.”
“I must say no more so as not to give away all the surprises of the script,” adds the director. “The strange way of life referred in the title alludes to the famous fado by Amalia Rodrigues, whose lyrics suggest that there is no stranger existence than the one that is lived by turning your back on your own desires.”
The film is produced by Agustín Almodóvar with Esther García as executive producer and Bárbara Peiró, Diego Pajuelo and Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello as associate producers.
Further cast members alongside Hawke and Pascal include Pedro Casablanc, Manu Ríos, George Steane, José Condessa, Jason Fernández, Sara Sálamo, Ohiana Cueto and Daniela Medina.