It was a role in Ken Loach's 1995 Spanish Civil War film Land And Freedom that inspired Iciar Bollain to become a director. With a CV of local productions under her belt, Bollain impressed Loach at auditions for the film, so much so that he created a part for her.

"Ken turned a male role into a female role to have me there," Bollain recalls. "It was amazing. He shoots in a way no one else does. We really felt we were in the war."

Bollain followed Loach onto his next project, Carla's Song, set in Nicaragua, and went on to write a book on Loach's work. She then made the move from acting to writing, directing and producing and set up her own production outfit, La Iguana, with four partners.

Her first feature as writer-director was 1995's Hi, Are You Alone' a small film that performed well at the local box office and earned her first Goya nomination. However, it was with 2003's Take My Eyes, a drama about domestic violence, that Bollain began to make her name internationally as a director.

Take My Eyes won several awards at San Sebastian, including two Silver Seashells for the lead actors.

Now Bollain is to return to the festival with Mataharis, a $4m drama about a trio of female detectives which is screening in competition. Bollain has written the script with Tatiana Rodriguez. "It is hard because the expectations are high after Take My Eyes," Bollain admits. "But this is a completely different film, more gentle and light-hearted."

Najwa Nimri, Maria Vazquez and Nuria Gonzalez star in the film as the three private detectives. "After Take My Eyes I received letters from women suggesting I talk about the difficulty of reconciling family and professional lives," Bollain says. "Mataharis is born from this idea of talking afresh about men and women, about their relationships and about what sustains them, which is something both as fragile and as sturdy as trust."

La Iguana and Sogepaq are co- producing with financial support from local television broadcasters, TVE (free TV pre-sale) and Canal+ Spain (pay TV pre-sale). Bollain also took advantage of national and regional public subsidies, and set up a Sogepaq Distribution Agreement (all rights Spain and international). The film will be released in Spain straight after the festival (September 29).

"We have been doing screenings here in Madrid and the reaction has been good," says Bollain. "It is something the audience can identify with because the main characters are very ordinary people. I am crossing my fingers, and hoping the critics aren't too hard with me."