According to Spanish film maker Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, there is an intimate relationship between the family and the state, with the traits of the family mirroring those of the state in which it exists: "la primera célula del Estado es la familia, y si el Estado, por definición, es opresivo, la familia es igualmente opresiva" (García Fernández 331). "Yo utilizo la familia en mis películas porque es muy real, muy testimonial. La familia repite fielmente la estructura social 0 estatal" (Payán and López 27). In Demonios en el jardín (1982) Gutiérrez Aragón uses the metaphor of the family not only to criticize the oppressiveness of the Franco regime, but also to suggest the corruption and deceit at its very core.