MAKING OF TE DOY MIS OJOS. Icíar Bollaín's comments

"After Flores de otro mundo, I wanted to make a more concentrated movie, less choral, and probably because of it more straightforward and intense. The co-scriptwriter, Alicia Luna, and I had been thinking over the topic of domestic violence for a long time and saw that, though it is a constant theme in mass media, there were many questions that we could not answer.

Why a woman endures an average of ten years together with a man she's being thrashed by? Why doesn't she go away? Why not only she doesn't go away but even assure she is still in love as some of them do? Economic dependence reasons do not explain the fact that one of every four women in Europe and the United States affirm they have gone through some violent relationship in their life.

As we were doing research, we discovered that one of the basic reasons was that they keep hoping the man will change. So our character is a woman who keeps waiting at the door every day for the man with whom she fell in love... But who is this man? Why a profile of the batterer hardly exists? And why these men ill-treat for years who they claim to love with all their heart?

There are physically violent men, there are others that are violent also psychologically and these are probably the ones who cause more damage. Some are really cruel and there are some others who are also victims of themselves, cannot solve their conflicts if it is not by means of violence, need to control the person they love and are very scared... And that is the man in our film, someone who has the chance of seeing himself and change.

Te Doy Mis Ojos tells Pilar and Antonio's story but also that of whom surround them: a mother who consents, a sister who does not understand, a son who looks and keeps quiet, a few friends, a society and a city as Toledo, which, with its artistic brilliance and its historical and religious weight, adds one more dimension to this story of love, fear, control and power.

The actors

For the character of Pilar we tested many marvellous actresses. It was a long process. This character possesses the enormous difficulty of not knowing who she is. Pilar neither says what she thinks nor what she feels because she doesn't know it. She is a woman who is not herself. How do you tell an actress to play that? In addition, she is a woman who evolves, because she begins completely lost and ends re-composed and blooming.

Laia Marull can seem to be very fragile and be strong at the same time, can appear shattered or utmost beautiful, as if lightened from within, and is a very solid actress who can combine experience with emotion constantly on the surface.

Luis Tosar's character is also very difficult. He has given him many things. He goes from being very brutish and not understanding anything to establishing himself in another level. He can be tender and change in a second, growing dark and becoming unpredictable... Luis gives Antonio's character an infinity of shades. I believe that they are two very brave actors who really dove into the scenes.

Candela Peña brings her intensity and a great tenderness to a character that represents those who want to help but do not to know how, because deep down we don't understand. With all her good faith, Ana doesn't manage to help her sister because she doesn't understand her, because she tries to simplify something very complex. We are all a bit like Candela.

Rosa Maria Sardá carries out with generosity the ungrateful labour of giving life to a character who silences the problem and who therefore consents, as it has been done for so many years."