# The Girl of Your Dreams

The Girl of Your Dreams (Spanish: La niña de tus ojos) is a 1998 Spanish drama film produced and directed by Fernando Trueba. Set during the Spanish Civil War, it centers on a fictional Andalusian actress (Penélope Cruz) making a film in Nazi Germany who becomes the object of Joseph Goebbels' attention.

## Plot

In 1938, while Spain is in the grip of civil war, a film team from the territory held by Franco's rebels is invited to the co-production in Berlin of a musical set in 19th-century Andalusia, to be shot in separate Spanish and German versions. At first happy to be working away from their war-torn country, the group finds life under Nazism increasingly unpleasant and dangerous.
Macarena, their attractive star, soon catches the eye of Goebbels, the Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, who is determined to bed her. Though she finds him repulsive and prefers the company of Blas, the married director of the Spanish version, she is made clear that for the sake of the project and of Hispano-German relations she must comply.
When she points out that the extras in the film look ridiculously inauthentic, being tall and fair-haired, they are replaced by short dark Jewish and Romani prisoners from a concentration camp, under armed SS guards. An extra with whom she sympathises, a handsome Russian called Leo, escapes the guards and she smuggles him into the villa where Goebbels has installed her. When Goebbels calls round, Leo knocks him out cold.
Blas realises that this is the end of the road for the project and rushes to see Goebbels' wife, who is well aware of her husband's activities. She writes him a pass enabling Leo, Macarena and her dresser to board a plane that night. The fate of the rest of the group, under arrest, is unclear.

## Cast

* Penélope Cruz as Macarena Granada
* Antonio Resines as Blas Fontiveros
* Jorge Sanz as Julián Torralba
* Rosa Maria Sardà as Rosa Rosales
* Santiago Segura as Castillo
* Loles León as Trini Morenos
* Jesús Bonilla as Marco Bonilla
* Neus Asensi as Lucia Gandia
* Miroslav Táborský as Václav Passer
* Johannes Silberschneider as Goebbels
* Karel Dobry as Leo
* Götz Otto as Heinrich von Wermelskirch
* Hanna Schygulla as Magda Goebbels
* María Barranco as Ambassador's wife
* Juan Luis Galiardo as Ambassador

## Historical background

During the Civil War, filmmakers from the Nationalist side found work in Germany and Italy. For example, in 1938 at the UFA studios in Babelsberg, the Spanish director Florián Rey filmed Carmen, la de Triana in Spanish and a German version called Andalusische Nächte, both starring the Argentine singer and actress Imperio Argentina with whom, according to legend, Hitler fell in love. She is reported to have sued the producers and director for using her life story without permission.

## Accolades

| Year | Award / Film festival | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Film | Best Film | Won |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Director | Fernando Trueba | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Actor | Antonio Resines | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Won |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Jorge Sanz | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Rosa Maria Sardá | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Miguel Ángel Egea and Carlos López | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best New Actor | Miroslav Táborský | Won |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Cinematography | Javier Aguirresarobe | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Editing | Iván Aledo | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Art Direction | Gerardo Vera | Won |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Production Supervision | Angélica Huete | Won |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Sound | Pierre Gamet, Dominique Hennequin & Santiago Thévenet | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Special Effects | Emilio Ruiz & Alfonso Nieto | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Costume Design | Sonia Grande & Lala Huete | Won |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Makeup and Hairstlyes | Antonio Panizza & Gregorio Ros | Won |
| 1999 | 1999 Goya Awards | Best Original Score | Antoine Duhamel | Nominated |
| 1999 | 1999 Berlin International Film Festival | Golden Bear | Golden Bear | Nominated |

## Sequel

A sequel, La reina de España (English: "The Queen of Spain"), starring Penélope Cruz and Jorge Sanz, was released on 25 November 2016.