works. El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez (1984) Needing to make some money, Aranda accepted a job to take part in La Huella del Crimen (The Trace of the Crime), a television series consisting of six episodes depicting infamous crimes in Spain. He was one of several renowned Spanish film directors: Pedro Olea, Angelino Fons, Ricardo Franco, Juan Antonio Bardem, Pedro Costa and Vicente Aranda, who were each invited to direct an episode. Aranda's chapter, El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez (1984) (Captain Sánchez's Crime), was considered the best episode of the series. Made in 16 mm and with a very low budget, the one-hour film tells a story in which incest, jealousy and death mix in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. The title character is a military officer, who supports his poor family and pays his gambling debts by plotting an elaborate trap to swindle money from those who fall for the charms of his pretty eldest daughter. Tiempo de Silencio (1986) Aranda's career began to soar when he made Tiempo de Silencio (1986) (Time of Silence), an adaptation of the famed Luis Martín Santos novel of the same name. The film had a major cast headed by Imanol Arias, Victoria Abril and Francisco Rabal. Set in the 1940s in the early days of Franco's regime, the plot tells of an ambitious doctor who is accused of killing a woman. But he had tried to save her life after a botched abortion, which was then illegal. The story moves from the sordid lives of the poor in shanty dwellings to the hypocrisy of the middle classes under Franco's regime. Aranda used themes of sexuality to explore political and historical issues. Though the film was criticized by some for his simplifying the narrative complexity of the Martín Santos novel, Time of Silence was generally well received by audiences. El Lute (1987) Aranda took a deconstructive approach to the manipulation of popular myth in his two-part biopic: El Lute: camina o revienta (1987) (El Lute, Run for Your Life), and El Lute II, mañana seré libre (1988) (El Lute Tomorrow I'll be Free), based on two volumes of memoirs by the legendary criminal Eleuterio Sánchez, who had escaped from prison several times. El Lute: camina o revienta (1987) (El Lute, Run for Your Life) concerns the early life of Sanchez, known as El Lute, who claimed to have been forced