Watch: Chaos Reigns in Exclusive Trailer for Pedro Almodóvar-Produced ‘Wild Tales’

When the Academy Award nominations were announced on January 15, one of the surprising picks in the Best Foreign Language category was Damian Szifron’s “Wild Tales,” which managed to beat out some of the more expected choices like “Force Majeure,” “Two Days, One Night” and “Mommy.”

Produced by Pedro Almodóvar, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year and went on to play TIFF, Telluride and Sundance. As we wrote in our Cannes review, “Developed around six distinct stories of surrealist showdowns and revenge plots, ‘Wild Tales’ enacts a savage assault on contemporary Argentine society, skewering class and gender biases through a series of morbid segments alive with dark humor.”

The official synopsis reads: “Inequality, injustice and the demands of the world we live in cause stress and depression for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This is a movie about those people. Vulnerable in the face of a reality that shifts and suddenly turns unpredictable, the characters of ‘Wild Tales’ cross the thin line that divides civilization and barbarism. A lover’s betrayal, a return to the repressed past and the violence woven into everyday encounters drive the characters to madness as they cede to the undeniable pleasure of losing control.”

In this exclusive trailer, we get a glimpse of how those six stories of chaos and, as Time’s Richard Corliss put it, “tales of apocalyptic revenge,” will play out. Sony Pictures Classics will release “Wild Tales” on February 20. Check out the exclusive trailer and poster below: