Pain and greatness (Pain and Glory / Spanish title: Pain and glory) is a 2019 Spanish drama film directed by Pedro Almodóvar from a screenplay by Pedro Almodóvar. The film premiered in Spain on March 22, 2019.
The romantic Salvador Mayo (Antonio Banderas), a director in the twilight of his career, suffers from a series of health problems when one of his films is being prepared for re-release. As his physical ailments begin to consume his vitality, he is overcome by a major depression that hinders his creativity and inspiration. In this desperate situation, he connects with the film's protagonist, Alberto Crespo (Asier Echeandia), from whom he has been estranged for 30 years. Crespo has also had better days in his life, now self-medicating between work duties.
By engaging in Crespo's "healing" habits, the pain subsides and allows Salvador to revisit moments from his past - memories of his loving but emotionally unstable mother, the purity of his first love, his lover and his greatest inspiration, Federico (Leonardo Sbaralia), whom he lost to drug addiction.
Longing for emotional liberation, at one point creative salvation appears in the form of a postponed autobiographical manuscript.
