Director: Bill Condon
Kiss of the Spider Woman is a 2025 musical drama directed by Bill Condon, adapting Manuel Puig's novel and its later stage musical for a new generation of viewers. Running 129 minutes, the film moves between the confined reality of a prison cell and the sweeping colour of an old Hollywood picture, shifting register as its two characters pass the time.
What is Kiss of the Spider Woman about?
Inside a cramped cell somewhere in South America, two men who could hardly be more different are forced to share the same walls. One is held on political charges; the other, arrested on a morals offence, fills his hours describing the plot of a beloved musical film he adores, along with its glamorous leading star. As the days stretch on, the retelling becomes a shared refuge, and a cautious understanding grows between the pair. Condon stages the remembered film as full song-and-dance sequences, so the drab confinement repeatedly gives way to bright, choreographed fantasy before returning to the quiet of the cell.
Cast & crew
Diego Luna leads as the political prisoner, opposite Tonatiuh as his cellmate and Jennifer Lopez in the dual role of the imagined film's dazzling star. The supporting cast includes Bruno Bichir, Josefina Scaglione, Aline Mayagoitia, and Lucila Gandolfo. Condon, known for directing musical and biographical features, also wrote the screenplay for this adaptation.
Context & significance
The story originates in Manuel Puig's 1976 novel, which had previously reached audiences as an acclaimed 1985 film and as a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical. This 2025 version, a United Kingdom and United States co-production, returns to the material as a full screen musical, foregrounding the songs that the earlier stage adaptation introduced. The prison setting and the political charges against one character are part of the source story's original framing rather than commentary added here.
Where & how to watch
Kiss of the Spider Woman is available to stream on K-Time, where signing in with a free K-Time account unlocks playback. This page is open to read without logging in. The title is offered with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, and the K-Time interface is built in Farsi for viewers across the Iranian diaspora who prefer to browse and watch in their own language.