Iciar Bollain

Born: June 12 1967
Where: Madrid, Spain

The leading actress-turned director won critical acclaim for her feature about marital abuse Take My Eyes.

The film, starring Laia Marull as the abused wife and Luis Toscar as the brutal husband, won seven Goya - Spanish Oscar - awards.

As an actress, she appeared in almost thirty movies, including 1983's El Sur by Victor Erice and Manuel Gutierrez'Aragon's Malaventura.

In 1991, she became a partner in the film production company La Iguana, devoted to both documentaries and drama.

She also starred in Ken Loach's Spanish Civil War drama Land and Freedom and Norberto Perez's Nos Miran in 2002.

After a couple of shorts, she made her feature directorial debut with Hola, estas sola in 1995 while the 1999 follow-up Flores de otro mundo was a prizewinner at Cannes.

Take My Eyes was her third feature.