Telling this story with a certain immediacy was one of our main challenges. It was a very short, tremendously intense process. When we started the development stage, we thought the film should be cast with natural actors. As we went along, we realized that was not the way to proceed. We changed course and started again, searching for professional actors.

The time spent on natural casting was not wasted. It allowed us to contact a group of young people who helped us to finish preparing the film thanks to sharing their own experiences. That is when we realized the truth of the often-heard expression that “truth is stranger than fiction”. The things they told us were much harsher, extraordinary and unbelievable than what we had planned for the screenplay. Many of the boys and girls we interviewed ended up participating in the film as the “friends” and gave us the added value of their reality and naturalness.

As far as production design, it was a great novelty to work with a team made up of crew who are mostly at the start of their careers. That idea arose out of the combination of having very few resources, the search for a different model of doing things, and absorbing the energy and motivation inherent in people who are starting out, full of enthusiasm. That decision was very hard to take given the artistic risk involved after working for so long with a highly experienced, extremely talented team.

All these people have worked their fingers to the bone. And there is something of each of them in the film. Whether they are in front of or behind the camera. This has been a film of opportunities and a lot of hard work, with very few resources, but great production value at a time when models are changing and when much thought must be given to how we do things. We don’t mean to say this is the way; it probably isn’t. We are at a time of transition when everyone tries to get by as best they can, but we must keep moving on and doing things while thinking about what we are doing.