Elisa & Marcela


Elisa & Marcela is a 2019 Spanish biographical romantic drama film directed by Isabel Coixet. Starring Natalia de Molina and Greta Fernández, the film tells the story of Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas, two women who passed as a heterosexual couple in order to marry in 1901 at Church of Saint George in A Coruña becoming the first same-sex matrimony recorded in Spain. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. It was released on 24 May 2019, in selected theaters in Spain, and on 7 June 2019, by Netflix.

Cast

The film has received mixed reviews.
Jay Weissberg from Variety defined it “a dully made, frequently ridiculous eye-roller shot in standard issue black-and-white that gussies itself up as a brave clarion call for gay rights”, while Lee Marshall from Screen considered Coixet's work “a conventional and predictably plotted period drama misses no opportunity to make forbidden love look as classy as a perfume ad.“ Clarence Tsui from The Hollywood Reporter acknowledged that “wanting to make a point, the filmmaker has delivered a piece devoid of the emotional nuances that made Brokeback Mountain or Carol, to cite two seminal same-sex love stories, such gripping and heartbreaking viewing.“