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==