“One of the most beautiful, intelligent and exciting films made up till now in Spain. The action takes place in the last days of 1970, when national and international opinion was stirred by the Burgos trials, and centers on a number of people at once united and separated by political and family relationships. One of them, Ana, has a strange illness which will cause her to start on a process of destruction, of herself and of those around her. A children's story, ‘The Queen and the Magician,' is in a way the crux of the film; at the end of it we know that the story was written by the princess who is its protagonist and that she can easily be identified with Ana. The tale, the real or imaginary experiences of the characters, the stage performances of the Strindberg play, are the elements used by Gutiérrez Aragon, in an admirable interweaving of the different parts, to offer us the information needed for a reflection as necessary as it is fascinating. Aragon's previous film was Black Brood (Camada Negra).”