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A filmmaker confronts his past and the sexual abuse he suffered at a Catholic boarding school.
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With Gael García Bernal. A filmmaker receives a script from a childhood friend, written based on the teenage years they spent together. He begins to remember the times at the Catholic boarding school and understand his sexual abuse and repression.
"Pedro Almodóvar is not one of the most well-known Spanish directors in the world for nothing, he has always presented a raw cinema with a focus on issues rarely seen in the film industry. 'La mala educación' openly talks about sexual and psychological abuses of the Catholic Church and transgender identity. In 2004, when this movie was released, transgender representation was still very focused on satire and Almodóvar showed that it should not be like that. The story even manages to have a relationship with Alfred Hitchcock's classic, 'Vertigo', much because of the theme - this construction of idealizing love and being deceived by the beloved one. Just like in Hitchcock's movie, we see a repression of desires, which gains a greater dimension in 'La mala educación' due to it being a child whose whole life was disrupted by abuse. It is impossible to talk about this production without mentioning the brilliant performance of Gael García Bernal, who steps down from the pedestal of a heartthrob to play three completely different and complex characters."