Gael García Bernal worked with legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in his 2004 film “Bad Education.” Like many Almodovar films, the plot of “Bad Education” is twisty, and different characters have different memories, so it’s not always clear exactly what is real and what is fiction, nor is that the point.
In the film, García Bernal plays Ignacio, who as an adult seeks out his friend from childhood, Enrique, to share a story he wrote about the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of priests when they were in school. Ignacio goes on to become a drag queen named Zahara later in life, and García Bernal played Zahara as well. In fact, he plays several other characters in the film — Ignacio’s younger brother, Juan (though, spoiler alert, it’s revealed that Ignacio actually is Juan), and a struggling actor named Angel. García Bernal also had to nail his Castilian Spanish accent for the film.
It seems like his hard work in playing these roles all at once paid off. The film opened the Cannes Film Festival in 2004, and Roger Ebert described the movie in his review as “an ingenious toy that is a joy to behold.”
