Bad Education ( Review)

Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Produced by: Agustín Almodóvar
Written by: Pedro Almodóvar
Country: Spain
Genre: Drama
Running time: 105 minutes



Set in the 70’s in Spain, Madrid to be exact, the viewer inserted in the world of transvestites and transsexuals, and through this strong movie Almodóvar wants to shows us the difficult environment of abused people and abusers that hide themselves in the least expected characters.

“Bad Education” is the 27th Almodóvar’s film. After having succeeded with “Talk to her “ (Hablé con ella, 2002) , Almodóvar tries to do the same, touching all the hearts of his audience with “ Bad Education”, a movie where people are able face passion, desire, love , obsession , and child abuse with its terrible consequences.

The movies starts when Enrique ( Fele Martinez) a famous director is visited by a fishy guy, an actor who is looking for job. This actor mentions he was his classmate when they were children and his first love. Ignacio ( Gael Garcia) asks to be called Angel. He wrote a story called “ The Visit” about both of them and what their experiences being part of a catholic school implied sexual and physical abuse by Father Manolo ( Daniel Gímenez Gacho).

It’s hard for Enrique to believe because he thinks that the Ignacio who just visited is completely different from the real person whom he fell in love with. To make his thoughts clear he travels to Galicia to Ignacio’s mother’s house and discovers that Ignacio had died four years ago , and that the person who was in his office was Ignacio’s little brother.
Enrique feels a deep interest in keep working with Angel and wants him to be the character of Zahara ( Ignacio as an adolescent) just to keep being in touch with him and this way he will discover what Angel really wants. Enrique and the fake Ignacio start a relationship and they finish the script where we can see Zahara blackmailing father Manolo and asking money for all the abuse he received and finally he is killed by him. Angel burst into tears when they finish recording.
A guy called Manuel Berenguer ( Lluís Homar) gets into the set telling Enrique that the movie is very close to the reality because it’s a fact that Manolo was being blackmailed by Ignacio in this period of time. Manolo fell in love with his brother (Juan) , and they started a secret relationship. When both of them ( Manolo and Juan) realize that they both want Ignacio dead , they took advantage of the fact that Ignacio was a drug addict. Juan gave Ignacio an over dose , killing him immediately.

A strong movie that will keep you on the edge in every moment, a movie that strongly hits the church members and really complain about the troubled religious educations that now a days is often questioned.