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Bitter Christmas

Bitter Christmas

★ 6,2 /10 (151 Votes)
2026 ES 111 min

Overview

Elsa is an advertising director whose mother dies during a long December holiday. She works non-stop and, without realizing, doesn’t give herself time to mourn her mother’s absence. After a crisis, Elsa decides to travel to the island of Lanzarote accompanied by her friend Patricia, who also needs to get away from the city. The story of these characters runs parallel to that of a screenwriter and film director, exploring how life and fiction are inseparably linked, sometimes painfully so.

Stream

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Release date

20/03/2026

Votes

151

Popularity

8.1

You’re confusing fiction with reality.

Genres

Status

Released

Original title

Amarga Navidad

Language

ES

Runtime

111 min

Budget

$11,700,000

Revenue

$4,755,643

Original Soundtrack

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CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

2026-09-12

⭐ 6

Split across two distinct timelines, this really quite messy and often almost incoherent drama tells us the story of the migraine-prone "Elsa" (Bárbara Lennie) as she recovers from the death of her mother - after a lingering illness - in 2004. She heads to the calm of the black-sanded Lanzarote to rejuvenate her writing career with her troubled friend "Natalia" (Milena Smit) whilst abandoning her hunky fireman/stripper boyfriend "Beau" (Patrick Criado) at home in Madrid. The later timeline introduces us to filmmaker "Raúl" (Leonardo Sbaraglia) who is putting the finishing touches to a screeenp…

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