La niña de tus ojos (The Girl of Your Dreams). 1998. Spain. Directed by Fernando Trueba. With Penélope Cruz, Antonio Resines, Jorge Sanz, Rosa María Sardà, Santiago Segura. 35mm. . In Spanish; English subtitles. 121 min.
In 1938, amid a civil war at home, a Spanish film crew travels to Hitler’s Berlin to film a 19th-century Andalusian musical at the famous UFA studios. Macarena (Penélope Cruz), the film’s star, catches the unfortunate attention of Joseph Goebbels, who tries to romance the frightened starlet. When extras are recruited from a concentration camp, Macarena develops a friendship with one of the prisoners. Blending farce and tragedy, director Fernando Truebda explores the banality of evil and Spanish film history, as the fictive film crew navigates desire and dreams. Cruz’s second collaboration with Truebda, after 1993’s Belle Epoque (Best Foreign Language Film winner at the Academy Awards), fetched seven Goya Awards, including Best Actress for Cruz. Courtesy Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales