Delgado, Maria M. (2023) Enforced Disappearance and Silenced Histories: Pedro Almodóvar's Madres paralelas/Parallel Mothers (2021). In: Staging difficult pasts: transnational memory, theatres, and museums. Routledge, London, pp. 207-228. ISBN 9781003315827

Abstract

This chapter positions Parallel Mothers as a call for restorative justice for the 114,000 citizens killed by General Francisco Franco’s rebel forces during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and its immediate aftermath who lie in unmarked graves across the length and breadth of the nation. Examining the ways in which theatre and testimony are brought into dialogue in the film, the chapter shows how the film engages with Lorca as a symbol of the disappeared, references the role of the documentary in articulating instances of enforced disappeared, and recognises the importance of artistic interventions in the framing of a difficult past.