A moment from The Orphanage

What personal touches did you bring to the movie?

I wanted the clash between the worlds of children and adults developed and a deeper involvement in why Laura (Belen Rueda) would go back to the same place she once called home. The ideas of regression, facing the unknown, and Laura building up a parallel story in her own mind were crucial to me. The children’s games were key, too. The most important line in the film is: “I don’t know how to play anymore.” The first shot you see is the young Laura playing the tapping game and it’s that one she has to remember to conjure the spirits of her memory. The first half of the movie has Laura reliving her youth and the last half is her regressing back to that childhood state. The cruelty of hope is my main theme.

You must have been thrilled by the reaction The Orphanage received at Cannes. And that it has since become the top-grossing film of the year in Spain?

Cannes doesn’t usually go for genre movies. But thanks to Guillermo again, Pan’s Labyrinth the year before paved the way for easier acceptance. I don’t believe in genre anyway... The ending is emotional because that’s what Laura was looking for the moment she arrived back where she belonged. I didn’t care if that fitted the genre because it was the obvious ending. The things that make movies alive are not the genre but what lies beneath. Here, that’s a mother’s unqualified love. That’s why the movie has done so well in Spain and abroad. You can’t pigeonhole it. You must worry about the truth of your characters and that it fits your vision. The rest will come naturally if you’ve done your job properly. I love the horror genre but I want to transcend it too. Allow the hardcore audience to see possibilities beyond the easy scare, to embrace its multi-faceted richness.

You’ve said the script was turned down many times. Why do you think that was?

Spain is a very small country, the industry there is not like in Hollywood. But at the same time as we were trying to get the financing, there was a lot of talk about The Others [2001] with Nicole Kidman. Everyone was waiting to see what would happen with The Others. They didn’t understand the mix of genres in the screenplay, they didn’t get that the movie was dealing with horror and drama at the same time.

Having only done music videos and shorts, were you daunted by the prospect of making a feature?

I am very grateful to my producers because they let me work with my usual crew on the music videos. For most of them it was also their first movie — the cinematographer, the editor, the composer of the score — but these people were the right ones.

So did you treat the shoot like you were making a very long music video?

Yeah, but in Spain there is no money for making music videos. You have to find ways to compete with all these amazing, spectacular videos that come out of the UK or the States where there is a lot of money in the music business. I can say that, having made 30 or 40 music videos, it was the perfect school for learning how to put all the money in front of the camera, to put all the money on the screen and make it look like I had everything I needed.

Did you always hope this film would translate to foreign audiences, or was that not important to you?

Well, I think this film deals with universal themes and fears. When I read the script for the first time I felt that it was dealing with the inner child that we all have… but it was also about the local culture and folklore. I think if something is very specific to a place or a culture, and very true in that sense, then it will have a universal spread. You should not try to make a film in a particular way because you think other people in another country will like it.