Brixton Film Club

From iconic director Pedro Almodóvar, Bitter Christmas tells two alternating stories one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December.The second takes place in 2026 and follows Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script.

His script, we soon discover, is the story of Elsa and those around her. Elsa is, in a way, Raúl's alter ego, who, like him, resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought.

He looks inside himself, and he can't help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant.

The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, exploring the limits of autofiction and stories within stories.