When Penélope Cruz walked out of the cinema after viewing the film Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, the then 16-year-old knew immediately that not only did she want to become an actress, but she wanted to work with director Pedro Almodóvar. Thirty years later, the Oscar-winning actress has gotten her wish for the eighth time as she presents their latest collaboration, Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers), at the Venice Film Festival.

“I am the luckiest girl in the world,” Cruz told the press right before the film unspooled as the opening night premiere of the 78^th edition of the world’s oldest film festival, which has debuted such films as Nomadland, Joker, Gravity, La La Land, The Shape of Water, Brokeback Mountain and Au Revoir Les Enfants.

Madres paralelas begins by introducing us to Janis (Cruz), a renowned photographer who is assigned to take pictures of a prominent forensic archeologist Arturo (Israel Elejalde). When she seeks his assistance in helping to excavate a reported mass grave from the Spanish Civil War in her hometown, the two soon find themselves not only in a professional relationship but having a brief affair as well, which leads to a pregnancy. At the maternity ward, Janis meets another expectant mother Ana (Milena Smit), and the two soon find themselves intrinsically linked by their encounter. While each sets out on a path of single-parent motherhood, it is the sins of the past that need resolution and cast a large shadow over both of their lives.

For the Golden Globe and Oscar-winning director, the film not only continues his cinematic celebration to the powerful women in his life but, for his 22^nd production, takes on a formidable political undercurrent, showcasing the rarely acknowledged atrocities of the Franco regime. Almodóvar notes that his home country of Spain has faced a difficult relationship with its history yet owes “a huge moral debt to the families of the disappeared.”

The 71-year-old auteur readily admits that actors working with him might confess to a bit of a ‘difficult relationship’. “I am a very demanding director,” he states candidly; yet for Cruz, who counts Julieta, I’m So Excited, Broken Embraces, All About My Mother and Volver as past collaborations, the partnership is viewed from a different perspective.

“He has given me so many opportunities, so many characters that are so different from each other and so different from myself,” she explains. “From our first meeting, we connected. It’s a pleasure working together because we like working hard but we have great communication. It’s a smooth ride even when we suffer… He’s so present on the set and you will not see him with a cell phone or talking with somebody else. He will be those 12 hours completely present, there for all of us and for every single department. That is something you don’t see a lot around nowadays.”

Almodóvar, who first cast the actress in a small but pivotal role in the film Live Flesh, where he subjected her to giving birth on a bus, has repeatedly stated that Cruz is an actress who gives him everything that he asks of her. “She is very beautiful and comes out beautifully in a film but at the same time, she is very trusting. She trusts me completely and that makes her very brave.”

The actress agrees. “He is my safety net.”