butterfly norwegian film gran canaria

Norwegian film Butterfly showcases Gran Canaria

Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.

Gran Canaria, a film set that no longer surprises

For several decades now, Gran Canaria and the rest of the islands have become the backdrop for numerous audiovisual productions. At this stage of the game, that statement is no longer news, given the constant filming that takes place across the archipelago, largely thanks to its tax advantages. What is unusual is for the islands — or for areas such as Maspalomas, which gave its name to a Goya-winning film this very year — to be protagonists of the fiction itself. The best example is the series Hierro. The latest is Butterfly, the Norwegian film that has just been presented in Las Palmas, with its director in attendance alongside a large representation of the cast, both Norwegian and Canarian, and the local crew hired for this production.

A director known for exploring family dysfunction

Itonje Søimer Guttormsen is a filmmaker renowned in her country for the singularity of her screenplays, in which she explores Nordic family dysfunction, identity, artistic vocation and personal narratives. This cocktail is reflected in Butterfly, which tells the story of two sisters who return reluctantly to Gran Canaria, where they grew up and where their mother has died under mysterious circumstances. Renate Reinsve and Helene Bjørneby are the actresses who bring the sisters to life on screen, while Lilian Müller plays the mother; the latter two were present last Tuesday at the preview screening, held in one of the auditoriums at Las Arenas.

Gran Canaria as a leading character

The other great protagonist of this dramatic comedy is the island of Gran Canaria itself. It could not have been anywhere else on the planet, because the plot, as well as being filmed on the island, unfolds on the island itself. Gran Canaria has been home to a large Norwegian community since the twentieth century. A development in Arguineguín is largely populated by these Nordic residents, complete with their own church and cultural and leisure centres.

In the fiction, the two sisters grew up in Gran Canaria and return as adults to the island to settle the inheritance as quickly as possible and head back home, but when they discover that their mother had been trying to establish a spiritual centre, they are drawn into a chain of events with profound and unexpected consequences for both of them.

A vision of the island beyond stereotypes

The director confessed to those of us who attended the premiere that her image of Gran Canaria had been tinged with prejudices, shaped by its tourist idiosyncrasy, but that travelling to the island to scout locations revealed the other face of a territory that captivates many outsiders. Even Guanche culture has a certain role in the film. “But by the time filming ended, it amounted to a kind of personal healing for me.”

From location scouting to the big screen

Butterfly, according to the Gran Canaria Film Commission, began its journey on Gran Canaria in 2022 with the first location scouting work and the participation of the Norwegian production company Merfilms in the fifth edition of MECAS (the Almost Made Film Market), held within the framework of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, where it made contact with its local partners. The film was shot in 2024 in various locations across Gran Canaria, with the Temisas area featuring prominently in the film, a place the director described as inspiring for this project. Filming also extended to the Barranco del Guiniguada and various locations in Agüimes, Tejeda, Moya and San Bartolomé de Tirajana.

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