Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom

(Pepi, Luci, Bom, y otras chicas del montón). Madrid’s nascent punk and gay underground provides the fertile setting of Almodóvar’s debut feature, a manic slice of screw-you life that could outshock even early John Waters with its transgressive energy. Swearing vengeance on a rapist cop, “modern girl” Carmen Maura (beginning a collaboration with Almodóvar that would last decades) joins forces with a lesbian punk singer (notorious Mexican-Spanish performer Alaska) and a repressed housewife (Eva Siva). A counterculture Movida Madrileña tour across a post-Franco Spain of penis beauty pageants, golden showers, and punk shows, Pepi also showcases the female camaraderie and resilience that would become Almodóvar’s constant theme.