Ena. Queen Victoria Eugenia

World Premiere MIPCOM Cannes 2024.

25/09/2024 11:43 horas

Por RTVE

ENA

Prime Time Series - Biographical / Historical / Drama

1S - 6 x 60'

ENA is the story of a queen and also of a woman. Of a young Englishwoman who had never dreamed of being what she was: queen of Spain. On the journey, Victoria Eugenia leaves behind her family, her customs, her culture and has to renounce her religion to live in a strange land, where the first thing she suffers is an attack on her wedding day.

She never felt accepted or loved, but she never gave up and always fought to achieve both. Modern in a traditional environment, she was an icon of fashion and of the liberation of feminine customs: she smoked, wore pants... When she discovered the continuous infidelities of King Alfonso XIII, she did not give up her role as queen. And she did so with discretion and, above all, resilience. She suffered the curse of transmitting hemophilia, to her husband's sorrow in view of the difficult dynastic succession that this entailed. In exchange, she improved the health of many Spaniards with a work which has gone down in history: the reconstruction of the Red Cross.

ENA was a woman who fought to be happy with all her strength in a bitter period, in which she witnessed two world wars, a civil war and the deadly Spanish flu. For all these reasons, ENA, as a series, not only tells the story of Victoria Eugenia's life, it is also a portrait of an era that changed the world.

CHARACTERS:

QUEEN VICTORIA EUGENIA (ENA). Educated with Queen Victoria of England (her grandmother), her mother was her first lady-in-waiting. But her rank was lower than that of her cousin princesses. Therefore, that she was chosen to be queen of Spain was somewhat surprising. An opportunity that arose after the young Alfonso suffered the rejection of Patricia de Connaught and was attracted by her beauty. She had a hard time adapting to Spain and Spain had a hard time understanding Ena, who had unusual habits for a woman of those times in our country: she smoked, played golf, wore pants and was modern in the way she dressed, fleeing from anything overdone... except for one of her great passions: jewelry. The beginning of her marriage to Alfonso XIII was a happy one. And she, knowing her responsibilities, gave birth -between 1907 and 1914- to six children. Her marriage broke down when her eldest son was diagnosed with hemophilia in 1910. Concerned about charity work, her great work was the renovation of the Red Cross. After her separation from Alfonso in exile, she spent time away from her family. Over the years, she developed a sense of strategy, a political instinct that was key to her son Juan and to her grandson Juan Carlos, whom she supervised in his upbringing as a child.

ALFONSO XIII. Alfonso is the example of a king who has to assume responsibilities at a very young age. He was born five months after the death of his father and assumed the crown at the age of 16. He grew up under the shadow of his mother, María Cristina, with whom he was very dependent. Chaste like few others, Alfonso handled himself like no one else in short distances. He had charisma and personality: Winston Churchill himself recognized this. He had three weaknesses: cars, hunting and women, an obsession that ran in his family and which he passed on to his successors. His love for Ena was sincere, but that did not mean he flirted with just anyone. It was his way of being. When he learned that hemophilia had run in the family, the end of his relationship with Ena began. As a statesman, his reign confronts lights and shadows. He boosted industry and commerce, taking a step forward in the modernization of the country. His humanitarian work with the Oficina Pro Cautivos was a world pioneer and deserved a Nobel Peace Prize, which he never received. On the contrary, these modernizations did not correct the great existing social gap. Nor did he succeed in correcting the African conflict, which generated great social unrest, overthrew several governments and generated the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, which was -together with the precedent of the disaster of Annual- the beginning of the crisis that ended with the kings in exile.

He thought he was leaving Spain to return soon. He never came back. And his longing for Spain made him bitter in exile. When the civil war broke out, he supported General Franco, whom he once named as the youngest general in Europe and of whom he was the best man at his wedding. However, after the victory of the national side, Franco disowned him. Alfonso is consumed between stupefaction and resentment and falls ill. He abdicates in the name of his son Juan in Rome. The city where he died in 1941.

MARÍA CRISTINA. Second wife of Alfonso XII, she exercised the regency alone from the death of her husband in 1885, until Alfonso was 16 years old. Under her reign she lived through the crisis of 1898, with the loss of Cuba and the Philippines. As Ena, her arrival in Spain was not easy: she came to replace the deceased María de las Mercedes, a queen of popular legend. However, her Germanic discipline and righteousness prevailed. Discreet, cultured (great music lover) and prudent, she also had, like Ena, to suffer multiple infidelities of her husband, to which she always stood up directly. She never wanted Ena to marry Alfonso.

Maria Christina was the living surviving example of the glorious past of the European monarchies. And, for her, Ena was little more than an upstart who, moreover, could bring disease to the heirs to the crown, given that her brothers already suffered from hemophilia, as did the Russian branch of the Battenbergs. Nor did she like her daughter-in-law's what she considered eccentricities out of place for a queen, such as smoking, golfing and her manner of dress. However, although she was not fond of admitting it, she valued her discretion, her ability to hide her feelings... The people called her Miss Virtues, because of her moral rigidity and because she never fell into a rancor that no one would blame her for. In character, she was introverted, and tried to isolate herself from the world to live more intensely the inner world of her own dreams and illusions.

BEATRICE OF SAXONY (BEE). Granddaughter of British monarch by paternal line, Beatrice bore the treatment of princess of Great Britain and Ireland with treatment of Royal Highness. Technically, she was a better match than Ena. Bee (as she was called by those closest to her) even commented to Ena that Alfonso had corresponded with her at the same time as her cousin. Ena always took it as a joke. Bee is Ena's best friend and her accomplice since she was a child. Unlike the queen, Bee is a party animal and uninhibited. Fulfilling the saying that a wedding brings more weddings, at the wedding between Alfonso and Ena, Bee meets Alfonso of Orleans, cousin of the king. There they begin a love story that will end in marriage... And in drama, because being Alfonso de Orleans (Ali, for friends) part of the royal family, Bee had to convert to Catholicism, which she refused. They were secretly married in a double ceremony (Lutheran and Catholic) in Coburg, what entailed a banishment order. Alfonso, who had always been attracted to Bee, managed to get them back in just two years to Ena's happiness... And to be able to go further in his relations with Bee, to whom he was passionately attracted. Endowed with great artistic talent, Bee was a great draughtswoman and designed the emblem of the Spanish aviation, which would later be copied by the English RAF and other countries. Ali, her husband was one of the most talented aviators in the country.

ALFONSO DE ORLEANS (ALI). Son of Eulalia de Borbón, who never looked favorably on Ena's marriage to the king, let alone her son marrying Bee. Of shy character, but especially tender (that was what caught Bee's attention), Ali was a prominent member of the Spanish army as a pilot of its aviation. In addition to being cousins, the two Alfonsos were close friends, and used to go out together with their respective partners. They were afraid that they would start talking about engines and mechanics, because they were bored out of their minds. Bee knows that she attracts the king, but she rejects him. Perhaps for this reason, Alfonso did nothing to prevent their first exile. When they returned, perhaps out of gratitude or because Alfonso seemed to her a tremendously amusing man, the situation reaches the limit. The story of the Bee-Ali couple lasts despite the exiles and the passing of the years, being the father of two children. Humanly, Alfonso, far from settling for the courtly life that would have corresponded to him by birth, the Infante decided to be guided by his vocation, aviation, becoming one of the first Spanish pilots in history. Noble and fearless, he did not mind losing his infant status to marry the woman he loved. In the civil war he fought at Franco's side. However, when the war was over, unhappy that the monarchy was not restored, he was removed from the army despite his rank of General, and even so, he was always deeply loyal to Alfonso XIII.

CARMEN ANGOLOTI DUCHESS OF VICTORY. She was called the heroine of the Rif. And she did not fire a single shot. But her work changing the regime of the military hospitals saved the lives of thousands of soldiers, something that in times of war only a good general can achieve in battle. Carmen Angoloti is, together with Isabel Zendal, a myth of Spanish nursing and the Red Cross. That is to say, of what Ena fought so hard for. The Duchess of Victory is also a symbol of women's empowerment at a time when, in Spain, women had to ask their husband's permission to buy an apartment or to be able to work. Undoubtedly, her status as a noblewoman had not caused her to suffer any hardship in her life. But her temperance in standing up to the military is especially striking. To order the attention to the soldiers for the seriousness of their illness or their wounds. And not by rank.

An inseparable companion of Ena (she was one of her most loyal ladies), the Duchess was by her side from the beginning of her charity work. She was chosen (along with another of her "special" ladies, Conchita Heredia) to travel to Melilla after the defeat of Annual. Carmen Angoloti's work demonstrated two things: her courage and that of all her nurses, and how backward military health care was. Always loyal to the queen, she traveled with her into exile. Especially to take care of her son, Prince Alfonso. At the end of the civil war, when Ena had already separated from the king, Carmen returned to Spain. To take again the reins of the Red Cross. It is said that Ena, before leaving for Paris, asked a republican to take care of "her" Red Cross, not to abandon it. When she learned that the Duchess of Victory would be responsible for it after the war, she must have breathed a sigh of relief.

MIGUEL PRIMO DE RIVERA. Miguel Primo de Rivera will always be remembered for the dictatorship that bears his name. A milestone that meant the discredit of the king who supported him. For many, he is one of the first clear examples of populism. Admirer of Mussolini, whom he visited, he came to power and banned strikes and unions. He also banned the use of Catalan and Basque. He dissolved the political parties and replaced them with one: Unión Patriótica. And he carried out a maximum Catholic exaltation as an essential sign of identity. His economic policy was protectionist, with great investment in public works, highways and schools... Positive measures based on Mussolini's plans for Italy. But without a fiscal reform and with public expenditures at the level of the Ibero-American Exposition of Seville, the accounts did not work out.

After the Wall Street crash of 1929, the Spanish economy collapsed, and many military men, his main supporters, withdrew their support. The dismissal of two judges for convicting his mistress (called La Caoba) for cocaine trafficking and blackmail, led to the attack of intellectuals. Among them was Unamuno, who ended up banished to Fuerteventura. For those who had any doubts about his approach, here is one of his speeches, before he became dictator: "This movement is for men: whoever does not feel his masculinity completely characterized, let him wait in a corner, without disturbing the good days that we are preparing for the homeland. Spaniards: Long live Spain and long live the King!".

ÁLVARO DE FIGUEROA Y TORRES CONDE DE ROMANONES. For some, the Count of Romanones is the clearest example of a cacique, a vote buyer (even of his title), a person whose only reason for being was to have public office and power. When he did not convince with words, he did it with money. For others, Álvaro de Figueroa is a model politician ahead of his time, capable of achieving the forty-hour workday. Of promoting secular education and removing the Church from schools, of being the armed wing of Queen Victoria Eugenia, enacting laws that changed the education of nurses, sanitation and public health. Finally, for some, the Count of Romanones is all of the above at the same time. It is probably the latter who are right. He certainly had power. So much so that a phrase became popular: "Who do you think you are, the Count of Romanones?", to refer to the one who commanded or asked for too much. As a child he had a horse accident that gave him a visible limp for life, which made many criticize him behind his back. Accomplice of the king in many things (even in frivolities such as helping him to produce porn films), for many analysts he was the one who precipitated his departure into exile in an election with an ambiguous result. He had such convincing power that the king accepted and went into exile. Probably, he did not forget the king's support for Primo de Rivera, whose dictatorship forced him into exile.

CARMEN RUIZ MORAGAS. Carmela, as she was called since she was a child, was a daughter of a good family from Malaga who soon dedicated her life to acting. She did it not only as a way of working but also as a cultural necessity for a woman who spoke languages, was a quality reader (of novels and essays) and was able to keep up in a conversation with the leading intellectuals of the time. She was sometimes contradictory. She did not believe in marriage but she married. And she married a bullfighter, even though she was an anti-bullfighter. She was a leftist (and they say a republican) and was the king's mistress. More than lover, even, his "other" wife. Ena had already come to the conclusion that, even if it hurt, her husband was the way he was. But this infidelity marked her: for its duration and for the two children that resulted from it.

Carmen was nobody's slave, not even the king's, whom, by the way, it is said she was never in love with. She found him amusing, a good conversationalist... and it was easy for her to make a pact. He wanted her company. She wanted security, protection and luxury. And when we say companionship we are not just talking about sex. Carmen was capable of giving him a skin cream because Alfonso said that his wife had problems in this regard. It is even said that she influenced the fall of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, who was hated by all his circle of friends, especially Federico García Lorca. Because the king did not consent (he was indignant, in fact) that a great of Spain or a politician was against him. That was something he only allowed Carmen Moragas.

MATEO MORRAL. What can happen in the head of a person to throw a bomb at someone he hates, without caring about killing innocents? How could a young man who was prepared, educated, who spoke languages and had a whole future ahead of him commit such a depraved action? How could someone capable of seducing the Baroja brothers or Valle Inclán with his conversation not dedicate himself to using his pen with his literary talent instead of throwing a bomb at the Kings? Why risk his life to defend the lives of those who had nothing when he had plenty to spare? Was it his idea or was it instilled in him? Was he a hero or a puppet? A martyr or a torturer? Intelligent or stupid? Did he commit suicide or was he assassinated? So many questions and no answers. Because we only know of Mateo Morral that he was the man who tried to kill the Kings.

TECHNICAL DATA:

Direction: Anaïs Pareto and Estel Díaz

Based on the novel by Pilar Eyre "ENA".

Script: Javier Olivares, Isa Sánchez, Pablo Lara, Daniel Corpas

Production direction: Juan López Olivar

Cinematography: Juan Carlos Franco, Carlos de Miguel

Art direction: Silvia Ballesteros

Costume direction: Zulma Velázquez

Year: 2024

A RTVE production in collaboration with La Cometa TV.