| | | | | | |

Question- In “La ley del deseo” (1986) the transsexual played by Carmen Maura enters the school chapel where he studied as a kid. She comes against a priest playing the organ, in the choir. The priests asks who she is, and Carmen confesses that she used to study there and that he (the priest) was in love with him. Is this the origin of “La mala educación”?
Answer- More or less. Long before I wrote a story about this transvestite going back to the school he attended in order to blackmail the priests who harassed him as a kid. During the making of “La ley..” I remembered that story and found the inspiration for the sequence where Carmen enters the school chapel and comes against the priest who loved her when she was a boy. At that time I was already thinking about working further this story. In this sense, Carmen is the premonitory shadow of Zahara.

Q- In “La ley...” there is also a film director...
A- Yes, and just like Fele Martinez’ character, he can’t tell his personal desires from his job, and he ends up paying hard for it. I’ve always been interested in the artist working with his own flesh; it’s a fascinating adventure with a difficult end.

Q- Have you ever done it?
A- I consider myself much more prudent than Fele’s character. We share the passion of filmmaking, but I never take that many chances in life.

Q- You have denied before that this is an autobiographic film.
A- As Paco Umbral says, everything that is not autobiographic is a pastiche. The film is autobiographic in the deeper sense –I’m telling the characters, but not my life.

Q- However, having lived in the same background at the age of the characters must have conformed some sort of inspiration...
A- Definitely. There’s a lot of reality in this film, but there’s also a lot of manipulation. Film is manipulation –even documentary film. "La mala educación" is fiction, but just the few interviews I’ve given so far make me realize that people like the idea of it being autobiographic.