Mature and moving aren't words usually associated with "King of Kitsch" Pedro Almodóvar, but they certainly apply to this inspired comedy drama that's littered with allusions to the Bette Davis classic All about Eve and Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. Devastated by the death of her son in a road accident, hospital worker Cecilia Roth donates his organs before leaving Madrid for Barcelona to carry out the boy's wish and tell his absent father of his existence. It is here that she finds a whole new purpose in tending to a pregnant HIV-positive nun (Penélope Cruz) and a grande dame of the stage nearing the end of her career (Marisa Paredes). With sassy humour coming from Antonia San Juan as a transvestite prostitute awaiting a sex change, this fond, deliciously flamboyant study of womanhood and friendship is intense without ever being overbearing, and touching but never sentimental. It's one of the Spanish director's finest achievements and it earned him a best foreign language film Oscar plus two gongs at the Baftas.

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.