Reading the novel impressed me. Two
things attracted my attention in it. The first was related to the
story about the learning process of a teenager who is born and
raised in a complex and torn-up world which he might have deemed
gloomy. However, thanks to his intense relationships with women who
are older than him, his opinion about life is one of harmony,
vitality and tolerance. But there was more to the novel than that.
I extracted a second element which only reinforced the reflections
I had made on the basis of the first one: violence is perpetrated
by those who cannot, or think they cannot seduce others [...]
I soon felt the urge to make a film
based on that novel. It was Andrés Vicente's idea to "Hispanicize
the novel. In the transformation process part of the
Center-European sense of tolerance has been lost and in return it
has gained in terms of acquiring an absurd though very Spanish
sense of humor. Azcona has the ability of introducing complex ideas
in a simple way, always sticking to reality with a sense of humor.
His dialogues are short, sharp and authentic. His tough-gentle
stamp is what I was looking for as far as the tone of the film was
concerned. Working with him has been a great experience. Vizinczey
also expressed his satisfaction over the script. During the Spanish
Civil War the same sort of parallels of freedom and lack of freedom
occurred as in Hungary during the Second World War.
MANUEL LOMBARDERO