her final days. In another, Ana watches her parents argue late at night. María begs Anselmo to be more present in his family's life, saying that she is sick and wants to die; Anselmo dismisses her coldly, countering that she is trying to manipulate him into ending his infidelities by feigning illness. Growing increasingly despondent, present-day Ana offers to help her grandmother die by administering the same poison powder she used to kill her father, which her grandmother accepts, but then declines once Ana tells her that the "poison" is called baking soda. Later, Ana discovers Roni dying and strokes him until he goes still. Nicolás comes to the house to visit Paulina, who is revealed to be his mistress. Ana, holding a pistol she found in her father's study, walks in on an intimate moment between the two adults. Nicolás eventually persuades her to hand him the gun, and discovers that it was loaded. That night, Ana attempts to kill Paulina by dissolving the "poison" in a glass of milk, which she later retrieves and washes as she did her father's glass. Ana then enters Paulina's bedroom and strokes her hair as she lies asleep in bed. Ana is briefly shocked that Paulina is alive the next morning. At breakfast, Irene recounts a dream from the night before: two men kidnapped her and couldn't reach María and Anselmo for ransom, but when they were about to kill her, she woke up. The sisters leave for school, emerging from their cloistered lives into the vibrant, noisy city, captured in a long tracking shot that contrasts with the tighter framing of the preceding scenes. Cast Ana Torrent plays the lead character, Ana. She was already well known thanks to her starring role in the film El espíritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive) (1973) by Víctor Erice, made when she was seven years old. She followed Cría Cuervos with yet another memorable role in The Nest (1980) in which she played a thirteen-year-old in a relationship with an aging widower played by Héctor Alterio, who in this film has the role of Anselmo, Ana's father. Geraldine Chaplin plays dual roles: Ana's mother, María, in which she speaks Spanish with an English accent and Ana as a young woman in which she is dubbed by actress Julieta Serrano. Chaplin was director Saura's common-law wife and muse at that time. She