Spanish public broadcaster TVE has joined forces with El Deseo on Pedro Almodovar's new film Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos), which starts shooting this week in Lanzarote.

TVE previously worked with Almodovar on his films Bad Education and Oscar winning Volver. The broadcaster also worked with El Deseo on Lucrecia Martel's Cannes competition title The Headless Woman.

Broken Embraces is a 1990s-set drama, starring Penelope Cruz and Blanca Portilla, in a 'four-way tale of amour-fou, shot in the style of 1950s American film noir at its most hard-boiled,' according to Almodovar. Universal is also backing the film.

TVE has also signed an agreement to participate in Oscar winning director Fernando Trueba's next two films El Baile De La Victoria, adapted from the novel by Antonio Skarmeta, and the adult animation film Chico Y Rita.

Other projects TVE will be backing include the comedy Dieta Mediterranea, from festival favourite Joaquin Oristrell; veteran film maker Vicente Aranda's Luna Caliente, an adaptation from the novel by Argentinean Mempo Giardinelli; Marc Recha's Es Aqui On Visc; David Planell's drama La Verguenza; and Una Palabra Tuya, directed by Ángeles González-Sinde, president of the Spanish film academy (Academia de las Ciencias y las Artes Cinematográficas de España).

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