Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar will present a highly anticipated short film, shot in English with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, organizers have announced. Strange way of life will be screened “in official selection and world premiere” and will be “followed by a meeting” with the team.
Expected as a sort of response to the Secret of Brokeback mountain (2005), this western tells the story of a breeder, Silva, played by the actor of The Last of us, and a sheriff, played by Ethan Hawke. The two men reunite 25 years after working together as contract killers.
Almodovar’s second time in English
“The strange way of life referred to in the title alludes to the famous fado of Amalia Rodrigues, whose lyrics suggest that there is no existence stranger than the one one lives while turning the back to his own desires”, according to Pedro Almodóvar. This is the second time that the Spanish director has shot in English, after a first short film, The human voicewith Tilda Swinton, presented in Venice in 2020.
A filmmaker emblematic of the liberation of morals and of Movida in Spain, Pedro Almodóvar is a regular at Cannes, where he notably presented The bad education at the opening in 2004 and for which he chaired the jury in 2017. He had awarded the Palme d’Or to The Squareby Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who will chair the jury this year.