The title in Spanish stems from the phrase "Raise ravens and they'll pluck out your eyes." The equivalent phrase in English would be "you reap what you sow."
During an interview, Geraldine Chaplin stated filming her scenes with little Ana Torrent required a lot of patience because the girl had a strong dislike for Chaplin. When Ana gives loving looks to her mother off screen, she's really interacting with the first assistant director, on whom Ana had a powerful crush.
Geraldine Chaplin plays dual roles: Ana's mother María, in which she speaks Spanish with an English accent, and Ana as a young woman in which she is dubbed by actress Julieta Serrano. Chaplin was director Saura's common-law wife and muse at that time. She has appeared in 10 of his films.
Cría cuervos (1976) became the sixth largest grossing Spanish film of 1976 with a similar strong showing in foreign markets, including the United States, where it solidified Saura's reputation as Spain's best internationally known director of the 1970s.
This film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 16 critic reviews.