"The relationship between flowers and people has been a long and wondrous human journey … We still honor and gift one another with vibrant blooms. Flowers scent the air and our bodies. Our homes and offices are decorated with their cut stems and with potted plants. We garden with flowers and they soothe our minds and bodies. They inspire us. We write about flowers and choose them as subjects in our paintings and photographs. Whether flowers or people are in control of this relationship is perhaps debatable. Nevertheless, by caring for them, we learn that flowers sustain and feed us, enriching our lives."

— Stephen Buchmann in The Reason for Flowers

The three women in Flowers are consumed by different emotions. One is caught up in yearning, another in loss, and the third by the need for closure to pain. Flowers play a central role in their lives, especially as they deal with the death of a person whose life is cut short, leaving behind a series of mysteries. Directors Jon Garano and Jose Mari Goenaga have created an alluring and mesmerizing film; its striking visuals add to the storytelling in effective ways.

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul."

— Luther Burbank

Ane (Nagore Aranburu) learns from a doctor that she has early-onset menopause. She is married to Ander (Egoitz Lasa) but their relationship is chilly and they rarely speak to one another. Depressed, lonely, and feeling worthless, Ane has her spirits perk up when she begins receiving flower bouquets from a stranger every Thursday. This makes Ane feel much better about herself. Her husband's reaction to these note-less gifts turns from anger to jealousy.

"Flowers grow out of dark moments."

— Corita Kent

The gift giver is Benat (Josean Bengoetxea), a crane operator at the construction company where Ane works as a secretary. He is married to Lourdes (Itziar Ituno), a toll-booth worker with a son. She is constantly humiliated by Benat's controlling mother Tere (Itziar Aizpuru) who does not like or respect her. When he dies in an automobile accident, these three women are thrown for a loop.

A roadside place of mourning is set up and Tere places flowers there. Feeling guilty over her shameful treatment of Lourdes, she reaches out to her, but Lourdes refuses to reconcile. Both women are confused and bothered by the fact that someone is placing fresh flowers at the place of the accident every week. When they discover it is Ane, they have to come to terms with what Benat meant to her.

"We are all treading the vanishing road of a song in the air, the vanishing road of the spring flowers and the winter snows, the vanishing roads of the winds and the streams, the vanishing road of beloved faces."

— Richard Le Gallienne

Flowers is Spain's submission for Academy Award consideration. It is a touching movie that vividly and sensuously conveys the vulnerability and fragility of our lives and the healing that comes when we make others feel special. Watch this drama slowly blossom in your consciousness and soul. You will walk away from it with a keen sense of how precious are flowers and the emotions they arouse within us.