A nun, an actress and a sex worker walk into a Barcelona in All About My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar’s Oscar-winning drama from 1999.

Another Spanish twist on his beloved Old Hollywood, Almodóvar trades the farcical comedy of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown for touching melodrama; a deeper lens to explore the multifaceted lives of the women who raised him, both on-screen and off. It openly borrows storylines from All About Eve and A Streetcar Named Desire, both of which feature heavily, his art imitating life imitating art.

Cecilia Roth is impeccable as the nurse whose aspiring-writer son (a surrogate for Almodóvar) is killed in a car accident. She travels to Barcelona to find his father (now his other mother), reunites with her transgender friend (Antonia San Juan) and meets a nun (Penélope Cruz) who contracts HIV. This is arthouse telenovela, handled with elegance and pathos by the Spanish auteur and his enchanting cast.

Almodóvar displays the utmost compassion for his female characters, including trans women, drug addicts and sex workers. Like the tragic heroines they invoke, they carry baggage but no shame, defying contemporary portrayals with dignity and humour. Characterising the transgender individuals as sex workers does feel stereotypical but this was 1999, while some of the characters’ obsessions with their genitals remains depressingly current. Meanwhile the fathers are conspicuous by their absence; there are virtually no male characters, and the son who thinks he is missing a father turns out to be more accurate than he imagined.

The director brings the drama to life in his trademark bright reds, retro interiors and bold compositions, alongside Alberto Iglesias’ soulful score that combines American jazz with Spanish music. It all adds up to a progressive and poignant picture about the ways in which brave women support, scold and save each other.