Almodóvar to present at Cannes his short film ‘Strange Way of Life’, a romantic western starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke
Pedro Almodóvar will present at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival the short film ‘Strange Way of Life’, a romance between two cowboys starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, which was shot less than a year ago in Almería on the sets of the ‘spaghetti western’, as confirmed by the film festival.
To be screened in the Official Section
The short film will be screened in the Official Selection and will be its absolute premiere at the festival, which kicks off on May 16. Strange Way of Life’ is the filmmaker’s second experience in English, after ‘The Human Voice’ (2020).
A quality cast
Along with Pascal and Hawke, other actors include Pedro Casablanc, Manu Ríos, George Steane, José Condessa, Jason Fernández, Sara Sálamo, Ohiana Cueto and Daniela Medina.
Filmed in the desert of Tabernas, Almeria.
Almodóvar acknowledged, when he revealed that it would be shot in the Tabernas desert, in Almería, and in the village built fifty years ago by Sergio Leone to shoot his ‘dollar trilogy’ with Clint Eastwood, that there were «surprises» in the film, whose protagonists have «a strange way of life» that «alludes to the famous fado by Amalia Rodrigues, whose lyrics suggest that there is no stranger existence than that which is lived with one’s back to one’s own desires».
A man riding across the desert
The new short film is based on a man who crosses the desert on horseback from Bitter Creek. On his journey, he goes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who comes to meet him, worked together as hired guns.
He was a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017
The Spanish filmmaker, who was a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, received the award for best director for ‘All About My Mother’ at the French event and also for best screenplay for the film ‘Volver’. In addition, ‘Bad Education’ was screened as a 2004 premiere, a first for a Spanish film and he also presented ‘Pain and Glory’, in which Antonio Banderas’ performance earned the actor the Best Actor Award.
