Una vida Bárbara

María García's childhood (1950) takes place in Totana, a town anchored in traditions and rural life. Since she was little, she suffers abuse from her mother and takes refuge in the figure of her father, who will help her fulfill her dream of becoming an artist. Having just turned eighteen, Maria leaves to Madrid accompanied by her father, seeking to fulfill her dream. Alone in the big city, she contacts the world of Madrid nightlife in the seventies and begins acting in well-known cafés-teatros. Her first youthful loves appear while she earns a living as a go-go artist, a model, and she lands small roles in movies. The big change in her life comes when she decides to leave her original name behind and change it to Bárbara Rey. From here, she gets more important roles in films, she is a victim of workplace harassment, she has a famous romance with Alain Delon and, finally, the great opportunity that she was waiting for as an artist arrives: presenting the 1976 New Year's Eve special.

Ahead of her time due to her way of dressing, combing her hair and living freely, Bárbara becomes the woman most desired by men in a stale and sexist Spain in a process of change. Her loves transcend the private and are the stuff of society magazines of the time while she becomes a superstar thanks to the program Palmarés (1976), popular films and other iconic films like “Me siento extraña.” Her professional success contrasts with her disappointments on her personal level: relationships like that of Carles Rexach or the one she lived in hiding with the King lead Barbara to become disappointed and live in solitude. Her support for a political party during the first democratic elections in Spain gets her into trouble and she ends up losing the jobs she had in film and TV. Bárbara takes refuge in Barcelona making a magazine and meets Chelo García-Cortés and José Manuel Parada, with whom she will experience great moments of friendship and the occasional night of passion.

After a passionate and fleeting courtship (of only two months), Bárbara marries Ángel Cristo, a well-known circus entrepreneur and lion tamer. Together with him she begins a new artistic career as an elephant tamer and she will become the mother of two children, Ángel and Sofía. The idyllic relationship soon transforms into a hell of abuse and humiliation resulting from Ángel's addictions and jealousy towards Bárbara. Furthermore, Ángel's infidelities continue and Bárbara is unrecognizable; she finds herself increasingly trapped and nullified. Years later, Ángel and Bárbara sign a separation agreement, but he continues to appear at her house, making her life impossible and turning her children's childhood into hell. Bárbara strives to return to work as an actress and one night, after trying to kill her, Ángel throws her out of the house and stays with her children. It is the moment when, finally, she decides to denounce what she is experiencing.