Elisa & Marcela

Synopsis

In Spain in 1901, Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas love one another in a society that does not offer them a recognised way to marry as two women. Elisa adopts a male identity so that they can attempt the wedding that would otherwise be denied to them. That decision turns a private commitment into an act of resistance to the rules governing their lives. The film builds its period romance around the lengths the women are willing to go to remain together and the social consequences of trying to make their bond official. Based on true events, it places their relationship at the centre of a story about love, identity and the institutional limits placed on intimate freedom.