“These conversations gave rise to the idea of structuring the documentary around the five stages of grief, as described by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance,” says Andrade. “Those emotions were recognizable to Natalia. At times, she had wanted to kill her attacker, later, she had felt very low, and now she is ready to talk about her rebirth.”

Under Her Skin follows the chronology of the acid attack but, according to Hernández Estrada, has two tracks. “The photographs from the years that followed the attack, when she underwent 37 operations, are very confronting. Natalia's brother also filmed the trial, but we don't know much about the perpetrator—a schizophrenic drug user whom Natalia had only briefly met twice. He was silent in court, and no one even knows where he comes from. In addition to recounting the facts, we tell the story of Natalia's inner transformation.”

“That part of the film is more introspective, almost dreamlike,” says Andrade. “They are mental landscapes that make Natalia's reality palpable. For months on end, for example, her eyes were covered to protect her eyelids and she could only turn her gaze inwards. The film reflects this in black-and-white underwater scenes, where the viewer experiences the feeling of sinking into something.”