There’s nothing pretty about heartbreak and guilt or abandonment and loss. But Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar has a knack for gussying up even the darkest themes, and Julieta brings his latest example. 

The film is constructed from three Alice Munro short stories — Chance, Soon and Silence — gathered in the Canadian author’s Runaway collection. A fair bit of running away goes on in Almodóvar’s reimagining as well, but without his customary camp antics. Julieta is his most restrained work to date. Some of its boldest wanderings unfold in the characters’ minds if not off camera altogether.

We meet 50-something Julieta (Emma Suárez) in present-day Madrid as she’s about to relocate to Portugal with her lover, Lorenzo (Dario Grandinetti). But a surprise encounter rattles her soul. She learns that her daughter, Antía, who upon turning 18 suddenly abandoned her, is still alive and a mother herself — of three children. Decades of anguish come to a head. Julieta breaks off with Lorenzo and their cross-border plans. For her next exploration she turns inward, chronicling her life in a letter to Antía.

Antxón Gómez’s production design traces that odyssey. The Basque art director and production designer elaborated here: