Die Wahnsinnige

Spain, 1503: In the fortress of La Mota, Joanna of Castile is expected to finally come to her senses. Too much is at stake for her mother, Isabella the Catholic. The queen rules the land with relentless severity; she has expelled the Moors and allows thousands to be burned as infidels at the stake of the Inquisition. She cannot entrust her kingdom to a daughter who does not pray, does not confess, and cares nothing for power. Joanna does not wish to rule over others. All she wants is to determine her own fate. But that seems to be a freedom reserved only for men. When she is married to Philip the Handsome in distant Flanders, it momentarily appears that the improbable might be possible: a life of love in a world of betrayal. Yet even when this hope is dashed, Joanna steadfastly clings to what everyone around her considers madness – the audacious desire for the world to be different from what it is. Against the historical backdrop of the biography of Joanna the Mad, Alexa Hennig von Lange poses a very modern question: How can we become who we are when that is not what is intended for us?.