Review of A Place in the Sun – a disturbing display of classic picture-postcards in the Canary Islands | Video

EThat same year, millions of tourists flock to the Canary Islands, a group of Spanish islands in the Atlantic Ocean where the sun always shines. Through still images like picture postcards, Mette Carla Albrechtsen’s pastel-colored paintings capture the delights on offer: cerulean rooftop pools, sandy beaches and waves that break in at dawn. But while the place asks its visitors to leave their thoughts behind, the film takes a deeper look at the human work that runs this luxurious paradise. Featuring relaxing exhibits and real-life interviews with staff at the facility, whose stories reveal the cases and courts behind the colorful travel brochures.

Some just come to the Canary Islands in search of a way to escape. A longtime Dane laments her homeland’s harsh climate, but finds it difficult to form lasting relationships on the islands, a transit point where few of her immigrant friends live. Others are fleeing more difficult situations – economic crisis and war. In an interesting story, the film goes from a famous night club to a shelter that works to take care of refugees who have been rescued from dangerous sea voyages. He promised a safe way to go Spain and their businessmen, thousands of people who are looking for a place of refuge are now almost gone, and all this is helping their work in various luxury resorts.

Apart from the ongoing problems, issues of volcanic eruptions and climate change are troublingly floating in the waves. By connecting these elements with the sounds of environmental destruction and human suffering, Albrechtsen’s film powerfully disrupts the popular image of the islands as a tourist destination, revealing the fragility and inequality that underpins this Edenic image.