{ "id": "eptxayc1sm", "slug": "elisa-and-marcela", "title": "Elisa & Marcela", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019", "label": "Drama films 2015 to 2019", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2019", "label": "Drama films 2019", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2019" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Elisa & Marcela (Elisa y Marcela) is Isabel Coixet's 2019 Spanish black-and-white Netflix drama about Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas, teachers who married in A Coruña in 1901 in Spain's first recorded same-sex marriage; it competed at the 2019 Berlinale.", "snippet": "Elisa & Marcela (Elisa y Marcela) is Isabel Coixet's 2019 Spanish black-and-white Netflix drama about Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas, teachers who married in A Coruña in 1901 in Spain's first recorded same-sex marriage; it competed at the 2019 Berlinale.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2019", "markdown": "# Elisa & Marcela\n\n**Elisa & Marcela** (Spanish: *Elisa y Marcela*) is a 2019 Spanish black-and-white biographical drama directed by Isabel Coixet, based on the true story of Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas, two Galician teachers who married in [A Coruña](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-coruna) in 1901 after Elisa adopted a male identity, in what is regarded as the first recorded same-sex marriage in Spain.[1](https://about.netflix.com/es_es/news/elisa-marcela-written-and-directed-by-isabel-coixet-set-to-be-next-spanish-netflix-original-film) • [2](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20220628/elisa-marcela-matrimonio-gay-saber-ganar/2385716.shtml) It stars Natalia de Molina as Elisa and Greta Fernández as Marcela, and was produced as a Netflix original film.[1](https://about.netflix.com/es_es/news/elisa-marcela-written-and-directed-by-isabel-coixet-set-to-be-next-spanish-netflix-original-film)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writers | Isabel Coixet, co-written with Narciso de Gabriel, based on his book about the case[3](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417) |\n| Cast | Natalia de Molina (Elisa), Greta Fernández (Marcela), Sara Casasnovas, Tamar Novas[1](https://about.netflix.com/es_es/news/elisa-marcela-written-and-directed-by-isabel-coixet-set-to-be-next-spanish-netflix-original-film) |\n| Format | Black and white, 4K, 118 minutes; shot in Catalonia and Galicia from 7 May to 6 June 2018[3](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417) • [1](https://about.netflix.com/es_es/news/elisa-marcela-written-and-directed-by-isabel-coixet-set-to-be-next-spanish-netflix-original-film) |\n| Festival | In competition at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival (2019), the only Spanish film in that edition's competition[3](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417) • [4](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20190213/isabel-coixet-presenta-berlin-elisa-marcela-historia-amor-homosexual-1901/1883701.shtml) |\n| Release | Spanish cinemas 24 May 2019; Netflix globally 7 June 2019[3](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417) • [5](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80121387) |\n| Reception | Rotten Tomatoes 47% from 17 critics; Metacritic score 33; IMDb 6.7/10 from about 6,800 users[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elisa_and_marcela) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/elisa-marcela/?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c) • [8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6704898/) |\n| Historical basis | Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas married on 8 June 1901 in A Coruña; the marriage was never annulled[2](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20220628/elisa-marcela-matrimonio-gay-saber-ganar/2385716.shtml) • [9](https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/02/13/actualidad/1550074514_072680.html) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot of the film\n\nThe film opens in 1885, when Elisa and Marcela meet at the school where they both work. Their friendship becomes a secret romance; Marcela's suspicious parents send her abroad for a couple of years, and on her return the two decide to share a life. Under social pressure and gossip, they plan for Elisa to leave town and return disguised as Mario so the pair can marry.[5](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80121387) The script begins in the couple's exile in Argentina, then returns to the Galician village where their love arose and moves on to Portugal, where they are jailed after the deception is discovered.[4](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20190213/isabel-coixet-presenta-berlin-elisa-marcela-historia-amor-homosexual-1901/1883701.shtml) In Coixet's telling, Marcela is heavily pregnant when the pair are arrested in Portugal, having slept with her suitor Andrés intending a pregnancy that would \"prove\" Mario is a man; the child Ana is born in a Portuguese prison, and the film frames her as an adult seeking her birth mother at its beginning and end.[14](https://www.motionpictures.org/2019/02/isabel-coixets-ravishing-elisa-and-marcela/)\n\n## The historical story behind the film\n\nElisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas met in 1885 at the Escuela Normal de Maestras de A Coruña, where Elisa was teaching and Marcela was training to become a teacher. Their friendship became a forbidden romance; Marcela's father, discovering the relationship, sent her to study in Madrid, but the two reunited and lived together for years in localities around A Coruña despite gossip.[2](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20220628/elisa-marcela-matrimonio-gay-saber-ganar/2385716.shtml)\n\nTo marry, Elisa created a male identity as Mario Sánchez, drawing on a cousin who had died in a shipwreck. She obtained a school certificate, claimed she had been living in London, and was baptized and married to Marcela by the priest of Dumbría on 8 June 1901, at 7:30 in the morning.[2](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20220628/elisa-marcela-matrimonio-gay-saber-ganar/2385716.shtml) Neighbors soon spoke of a \"matrimonio sin hombre\" (marriage without a man); the couple was denounced, made newspaper front pages, and had their arrest demanded.[2](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20220628/elisa-marcela-matrimonio-gay-saber-ganar/2385716.shtml) The *La Voz de Galicia* headline of 22 June 1901 introduced readers to the two teachers who had married in A Coruña.[10](https://confabulario.eluniversal.com.mx/espana-diversidad-sexual/)\n\nThe couple fled to Portugal and were detained in Oporto on 16 August, with Marcela pregnant when they entered prison.[9](https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/02/13/actualidad/1550074514_072680.html) They later emigrated to the Americas, where Marcela took the name Carmen and Elisa the name María.[11](https://www.65ymas.com/sociedad/elisa-marcela-historia-primer-matrimonio-sin-hombre-espana-lgtbi_16407_102.html) The Catholic Church never annulled the marriage, so the union remained on the books in A Coruña.[9](https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/02/13/actualidad/1550074514_072680.html) A 2020 study by Joyce Tolliver of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Sean McDaniel of Indiana University of Pennsylvania analyzed the 1901 press coverage and argued that the public at the time questioned the stability of gender as a category structuring social rights, and that framing the event solely as a story of two lesbian women elides Mario/Elisa's self-identified transgenderism.[12](https://asphs.net/article/mario-elisa-and-marcela-scandal-and-surprise-in-the-1901-spanish-press/)\n\nThe story fell into anonymity by the turn of the 21st century and was resurrected by a 2008 book by Narciso de Gabriel, based on an extensive review of educational, legal, and media archives; the Spanish press connected it to the same-sex marriage law (Ley 13/2005) Spain had passed three years earlier.[13](https://rodin.uca.es/bitstream/handle/10498/22781/DeGabrielVazquezDePalmaDefiningDesireSexualitiesn23a%C3%B12020fasc3.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1)\n\n## Production\n\nCoixet spent about ten years developing the project. She learned of the story on a trip to Galicia from Narciso de Gabriel, the scholar of the case and author of the book on which the film is based. Her screenplay stated on its first page that the film would be shot in black and white, which deterred producers; she said ten producers rejected the project before Netflix agreed to back it.[9](https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/02/13/actualidad/1550074514_072680.html) Filming ran four weeks, from 7 May to 6 June 2018, between [Catalonia](https://www.edgepedia.org/catalonia) and Galicia.[4](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20190213/isabel-coixet-presenta-berlin-elisa-marcela-historia-amor-homosexual-1901/1883701.shtml) • [3](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417) Jennifer Cox shot the cinematography, her feature debut, and Sofía Oriana Infante Souto composed the music.[3](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417) Coixet said she omitted from the film the accusations of witchcraft and violence that the period press heaped on the marriage, calling them \"an accumulation of calumnies\" she did not believe.[15](https://maresmefilmcommission.cat/en/news/isabel-coixet-will-compete-for-os-dor-at-the-berlinale-with-elisa-and-marcela-some-sequences-were-filmed-in-vilassar-de-dalt/)\n\n## Release and the Berlinale controversy\n\nThe film premiered in the official competition of the 69th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) in February 2019, the only Spanish entry in that competition.[4](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20190213/isabel-coixet-presenta-berlin-elisa-marcela-historia-amor-homosexual-1901/1883701.shtml) Its selection was contested before the premiere: 160 German cinema operators, through the association Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kino (Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater), asked festival director Dieter Kosslick and culture minister Monika Grütters to exclude the film, arguing that as a Netflix production it would never reach cinemas. The festival kept it in competition, and Netflix committed at least to a Spanish theatrical release.[16](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/254021/kritik.html) It opened in selected Spanish cinemas on 24 May 2019 and globally on Netflix on 7 June 2019.[3](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417) • [5](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80121387) Its Spanish theatrical run was small: 5,525 spectators and €31,268.30 in receipts.[3](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417) At the Berlinale screening, Coixet received an ovation that drowned out the end-credits music.[17](https://www.20minutos.es/cinemania/noticias/berlin-2019-elisa-y-marcela-matrimonio-lesbico-isabel-coixet-123217/)\n\n## Critical reception\n\nThe film divided critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds 47% from 17 reviews, with the critics consensus calling it \"an underwhelming melodrama that lacks passion and energy\" despite being visually attractive; the audience score stands at 76%.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elisa_and_marcela) Metacritic assigned a score of 33 based on four reviews, in the \"generally unfavorable\" range.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/elisa-marcela/?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c)\n\nPeter Bradshaw of *The Guardian* gave it 2/5, writing that Coixet had turned a real-life love story into something \"bafflingly passionless, joyless and excessively tasteful,\" while crediting the film with being \"idealistically conceived in setting out to retell a story that had been erased from the history of sexuality.\"[18](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/14/elisa-y-marcela-review-isabel-coixet-elisa-sanchez-loriga-marcela-graciela-ibeas-spain-same-sex-marriage) Jay Weissberg of *Variety* found \"true passion is absent,\" and Clarence Tsui of *The Hollywood Reporter* wrote that the film reworks the early 20th-century story into a plodding melodrama whose provincial characters behave like their 21st-century counterparts.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elisa_and_marcela) Spanish-language reviews were warmer in places: *Fotogramas* praised its romance and eroticism, and *El Mundo* called it \"fallida quizá, pero vital. Irregular, pero sincera\" (perhaps a failure, but vital; uneven, but sincere).[19](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-254021/criticas-prensa/) Later assessments were more favorable; Daniel Hart of Ready Steady Cut gave it 4/5 in 2024, and Marya E. Gates called it \"a beautiful, lyrical, bittersweet film about two elders of the queer community who should be remembered for their bravery.\"[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elisa_and_marcela)\n\nThe film won one Gaudí Award from four nominations, for best production design, and received four ASECAN nominations and two Berlinale nominations.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/elisa-marcela/?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Elisa y Marcela, written and directed by Isabel Coixet, set to be next Spanish Netflix original film, About Netflix (8 May 2018)](https://about.netflix.com/es_es/news/elisa-marcela-written-and-directed-by-isabel-coixet-set-to-be-next-spanish-netflix-original-film)\n2. [Elisa y Marcela, la historia de amor del primer matrimonio gay español, RTVE.Play (28 June 2022)](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20220628/elisa-marcela-matrimonio-gay-saber-ganar/2385716.shtml)\n3. [Elisa y Marcela, ficha catalográfica, Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA)](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=52417)\n4. [Isabel Coixet presenta en Berlín 'Elisa y Marcela', una historia de amor homosexual en 1901, RTVE.es (13 February 2019)](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20190213/isabel-coixet-presenta-berlin-elisa-marcela-historia-amor-homosexual-1901/1883701.shtml)\n5. [Elisa & Marcela, Netflix Media Center](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80121387)\n6. [Elisa & Marcela, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elisa_and_marcela)\n7. [Elisa & Marcela Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/elisa-marcela/?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c)\n8. [Elisa & Marcela (2019), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6704898/)\n9. [Isabel Coixet, Netflix y el primer matrimonio homosexual en España, El País (15 February 2019)](https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/02/13/actualidad/1550074514_072680.html)\n10. [Un matrimonio sin hombre, Confabulario, El Universal](https://confabulario.eluniversal.com.mx/espana-diversidad-sexual/)\n11. [Elisa y Marcela, la insólita historia del primer matrimonio \"sin hombre\" de España, 65ymás](https://www.65ymas.com/sociedad/elisa-marcela-historia-primer-matrimonio-sin-hombre-espana-lgtbi_16407_102.html)\n12. [Tolliver, Joyce and McDaniel, Sean (2020). Mario/Elisa and Marcela: Scandal and Surprise in the 1901 Spanish Press, Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies](https://asphs.net/article/mario-elisa-and-marcela-scandal-and-surprise-in-the-1901-spanish-press/)\n13. [De Gabriel, Narciso, and Vázquez de Palma (2020). Defining desire: (Re)storying a \"fraudulent\" marriage in 1901 Spain, Sexualities 23(3)](https://rodin.uca.es/bitstream/handle/10498/22781/DeGabrielVazquezDePalmaDefiningDesireSexualitiesn23a%C3%B12020fasc3.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1)\n14. [Isabel Coixet's Ravishing Elisa and Marcela Marks Netflix's 1st Film at Berlinale, The Credits (Motion Picture Association)](https://www.motionpictures.org/2019/02/isabel-coixets-ravishing-elisa-and-marcela/)\n15. [Isabel Coixet will compete for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale with 'Elisa and Marcela', Maresme Film Commission (January 2019)](https://maresmefilmcommission.cat/en/news/isabel-coixet-will-compete-for-os-dor-at-the-berlinale-with-elisa-and-marcela-some-sequences-were-filmed-in-vilassar-de-dalt/)\n16. [Kritik zu Elisa und Marcela: Netflix' Premiere im Berlinale-Wettbewerb, FILMSTARTS.de](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/254021/kritik.html)\n17. [Berlín 2019: 'Elisa y Marcela', el matrimonio lésbico de Isabel Coixet, Cinemanía / 20minutos (14 February 2019)](https://www.20minutos.es/cinemania/noticias/berlin-2019-elisa-y-marcela-matrimonio-lesbico-isabel-coixet-123217/)\n18. [Elisa y Marcela review – same-sex marriage drained of passion, The Guardian (14 February 2019)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/14/elisa-y-marcela-review-isabel-coixet-elisa-sanchez-loriga-marcela-graciela-ibeas-spain-same-sex-marriage)\n19. [Críticas de prensa para la película Elisa y Marcela, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-254021/criticas-prensa/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2019*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/elisa-and-marcela", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/elisa-and-marcela.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Elisa & Marcela\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/elisa-and-marcela. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Elisa & Marcela](https://www.edgepedia.org/elisa-and-marcela)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/elisa-and-marcela](https://www.edgepedia.org/elisa-and-marcela). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Elisa & Marcela\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/elisa-and-marcela. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Elisa & Marcela is Isabel Coixet's 2019 Spanish black-and-white Netflix drama about Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas, teachers who married in A Coruña in 1901 in Spain's first recorded same-sex marriage; it competed at the 2019 Berlinale." }