Let’s face it, the main draw of Asghar Farhadi’s latest film, Todos lo saben (Everybody Knows) is the star couple at its center. For his very first Spanish-language film, the two-time Oscar winning Iranian director recruited two of Spain’s biggest stars: real life couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. In case you’re counting, that’s four Oscars and counting behind this kidnapping drama that opened the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Examining family secrets and the tight-knitted frictions that characterize small communities, Farhad is treading familiar territory only in a new setting and with hints of genres he’d not worked on his previous films.
Cruz plays Carolina, a Spanish woman living in Buenos who’s returning to her hometown outside of Madrid. She’s brought her teenage daughter in tow who’s all too eager to hear that her mom was involved with Paco (Bardem), the bearded guy who may still harbor feelings for her mother. But in between the breezy, sunny landscapes of Everybody Knows lies a darker plot that soon reveals itself. During a party blackout the young girl goes missing. Immediately her father (Argentinian super star Ricardo Darín) arrives as he tries to keep hidden what have prompted the kidnapping in the first place. A family melodrama in line with Farhadi’s A Separation and The Past, this latest Bardem/Cruz vehicle may prove to be this year’s thriller-to-watch. Take a look at the full trailer below to see the Almodóvar muse go full distraught mother caught between two men played by arguably two of the best Spanish-speaking actors in the world.