Female friendship in The Room Next Door

Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar makes his English-language feature debut with stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton

- Alison de Souza

NEW YORK - Oscar-winning Pedro Almodóvar, the Spanish writer-director known for his explorations of complex relationships, makes his English-language feature debut with The Room Next Door, a story of friendship in the face of death.

Opening in Singapore cinemas on Dec 5, the drama follows Martha (Tilda Swinton) and Ingrid (Julianne Moore), friends who have fallen out of touch but reconnect when Martha faces a terminal illness decades later.

It won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice International Film Festival earlier in 2024.

Speaking at a screening of the movie in New York in October, Almodóvar, 75, says he cast Swinton and Moore because of the chemistry they all shared.

"I love them as actresses. I also worked with Tilda before and we became very close friends, and there was an immediate chemistry between us," says Almodóvar. He had cast Swinton in The Human Voice, his 2020 English-language short film.

And the first time the two actresses met, "it was like an epiphany for them".