We worked with psychologists, experts in trauma, who prepared us for shooting. To know when to stop, and to give tools to the girls so they can also say ‘I want to stop’ with signs with their hands. So the whole team was very prepared,” Weiskopf says. Other considerations included filming extensive research material, which was then checked by the head of the Colombian youth institute and the school’s in-house therapists to ensure the project remained beneficial to the young women, not harmful. When shooting rolled around, a series of workshops took place as well, where the girls were prepared before going on camera and guided into the interviews. Afterward, they came together to debrief as a group. “The interviews were one by one, so it was very intense and beautiful when all the girls came together as a community, and they realized they come from the same place. Normally these girls put on a tough face. Because they’re always defending themselves, they’re always very strong with each other. Here, it was very beautiful what happened because they realized that they’re all the same,” Weiskopf explains.

Speaking to Weiskopf and Van Hemelryck reveals a painstaking development period that spanned several years, full of workshops, research, consultations, and burgeoning friendships, ultimately giving way to a cinematic tour de force that paves a subtly subversive course of documentary filmmaking. Significantly, the ethics of director-character relations cannot be separated from the artwork itself here.