From the mid-1970s, nude girls’ magazines began to take over newsstands and so-called magazines. debuting cinema It was kind of repulsive to a society fed up with the Franco regime. one of his great figures, Nadiuskahappened during the years of political transition in eThe greatest sexual icon Spanish cinema has to offer. However, this German actress and model’s star has faded over time, until there comes a time when her figure has sunk into complete oblivion, which is something to confirm it. Nadiuska’s riddleAn upcoming documentary produced by Atresmedia TV in collaboration with Lavinia Audiovisual.
Fact and fantasy coexist in his biography. Roswicha Bertasha, more commonly known as Nadiuska. Born to a Polish mother and a Russian father, she said she was poor as a child, studied classical dance in Germany for a few years, and worked as a dancer when she was younger. variety shows in different parts of Europe. She also explains that at the age of 15 she fell in love with a German Jew who was 20 years older than her: “He was a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. With her, I learned to be a woman and see life. I stayed 15 year old pregnant And at 16 I became a mother for the first time. Despite the wedding we had planned, we couldn’t get over our son’s death. That’s why I ran.”
Nadiuska 19 years old went to barcelona in search of a future for himself and his sick mother. Because he liked what he saw, he decided to stay and live in a country that was soon attracted to him, and he proposed to her. I work as a model in collections ready-to-wear. Exotic facial features attracted attention. filmmaker José Antonio de la Lomawho offered him a supporting role in the movie Timanfaya: Forbidden Love (1972). “I objected because he wasn’t an actor and didn’t speak Spanish well,” she later recalled. “But he convinced me that they were going to impersonate me, that he was the director, and that he knew what he was looking for for this character.”
After the premiere of this film, Nadiuska began to attract media attention and Damian Rabal – brother of the remembered Paco Rabal – would file it as part of his represented portfolio. After accepting a few minor roles in minor films, Vicente Escrivá gave him starring in his comedy with erotic overtones Zorrita Martinez (1975). From here, Nadiuska has proven herself by repeatedly embodying the stereotype of forbidden seduction. in entertaining tapes determined to show more chicha than human talent.
Nadiuska gained some purchasing power in its golden age. Now, although he is said to be the first lead actor whose cache to reach four million pesetas per movie, he has assured himself that the maximum he can get is one and a half million per project. “Damián forced me to buy millions of gorgeous jewels and furs to give the image of a star,” he said. Week. “Jewels and furs were my only possessions. I’ve never had an apartment or a house in my name. He lived like a Hollywood star, but in a rented penthouse. The money I earned was managed by Damián, who deducted the percentages and paid the expenses and then put what was mine into my account.
Jewels and furs were my sole possessions. I’ve never had an apartment or a house in my name. He lived like a Hollywood star, but in a rented penthouse. Damián was managing the money I earned.”
In this busy work schedule, there were times when Nadiuska felt misunderstood and used. But, his representative forbade him to reject any project that fell into his hands.. “There were times when I was tired and scared but obeyed Damián, I didn’t say ‘I can’t’ but sometimes I got away saying ‘I’m dizzy’ or ‘I’m dizzy’, which meant the same thing to me,” she once said. “I had a daily schedule that only allowed me to sleep for three hours and kept me away from any kind of entertainment, because when the work was done I had to sleep so that at six in the morning the production car would take me to the next car, where I was filming even though I hardly knew what it was about”.
Nadiuska’s phone also went silent as the explanation began to lose its effect.. The actress has repeatedly blamed Rabal for her professional decline, with which she had an emotional affair (although she was married), eventually leading, according to her own version, to cite the artist’s agent’s influence in the industry. so no one would hire him again. “I began a brutal isolation,” said the German. “I turned within myself and searched for God, wandering through different religions. It was a miracle that the light within me was reborn, and it took me years to be myself again. There came a time when I was not my own master: I had become a robot and was going crazy. If we hadn’t left, Nadiuska would have devoured the person under the star.”
There came a time when I was no longer me.”
Before the complicated separation, Rabal was responsible for organizing Nadiuska’s wedding to an illiterate man with mental problems, and was deceived with the intention that the actress could quickly obtain Spanish citizenship. after the magazine Ten minutes When she revealed the cake in 1977, her marriage was annulled. “The homeless man was tipped three thousand pesetas and (after the ceremony) they released him where they got it, in a field of rubble and garbage where he made a living by searching for iron and metal,” writes Fernando. Gracia in her book What is hidden from Nadiuska.
Nadiuska was still the highest-grossing actress in Spanish cinema, but many journalists began to dismiss her for this controversial montage. With public opinion against him.German I decided to go to America for a while.where it shares credit with people like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Apparently, the actor and former governor hung up on him during its making. Conan the Barbarian (1982) is a movie in which Nadiuska must learn to use a sword and do martial arts in order to play the mother of John Milius’ famous comic book hero.
Also at that time, the actress had a long season. Indiadevoted himself to yoga and meditation, and even Catholicismsomething that helps him fight the deep sense of loneliness that has invaded him. Nadiuska tried her hand as an entrepreneur as filmmaking offers were scarce, but none of the ventures she undertook (from opening a restaurant to designing costume jewelry) were truly profitable. This meant that his checking account was significantly reduced, with years of helping his mother and stepfather, investing money in trips, and making economic contributions to charities working to advocate for children’s rights.
As early as the nineties, the German began to point out how bad this was in various interviews. feeling betrayed and deceived by friends, lovers, and partners an industry that turns its back on it when it thinks it’s already tightened enough. These interventions in the media were well worth it for Nadiuska to get the role. last two movies. On the one hand, fun horror comedy by Álvaro Sáenz de Heredia Bracula: Condemor II (1997), co-starring Chiquito de la Calzada. On the other hand, a film by Belén Anguas that has never been released, Judas and Mary Magdalene’s doubts (1998) and during the filming where the actress had serious difficulties memorizing her lines (which caused her feelings of frustration).
Shortly after participating in these films, footage of the actor wandering the streets of Madrid dressed in sweatpants and emaciated, worried his followers and friends. Nadiuska later realized that she was living in an unstable situation and that the source of her ills lay in a conspiracy against her by a “strong man” from her country of affairs (she told a journalist: “People close to the king” [emérito Juan Carlos I] They want to get rid of me They don’t like us being together so they have black sheets on the window so they don’t notice me.
Nadiuska, after living in an attic on Paseo del Prado and a four-story chalet in the upscale El Viso neighborhood, evacuation for not paying the rent of one of the last flats he lived in. In early 2000, he would cover it in an interview. Week His pathetic life in the Madrid hostel where he finally resided, and mental health issues that they took him to spend ten days in a psychiatric hospital.
The actress, who was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia, told the magazine, “Even though I was physically outside, I didn’t feel lonely because I was full.” “I am a very believer and I trust in a being superior to many religions. he always accompanies me […] My mother, who is currently married for the second time and lives in Germany, is the only family I have. My father is Russian, and I’ve had little or no contact with him in my life.” In the same speech, he spoke of his desire to fly and made sure to receive many offers to come back in front of the cameras.
After a while, an interpreter was reportedly unable to understand who he was. fed with leftovers from containers And Sleeping at the entrance to the Lope de Vega cinema, which years ago his movies were released. Nadiuska, now 71, lives on probation and is an intern at the Benito Menni Relief Complex in Ciempozuelos, Madrid, which specializes in helping and caring for the mentally ill. According to a photojournalist who managed to sneak into the center a few years ago, the actress looks bad and barely has a relationship with the other inmates. Perhaps a sad ending for someone who can’t remember today those days of wine and roses when it was the icon of a necessary and at the same time extravagant cinema.