Review of A Place in the Sun – A Subversive View of Picture Postcard Luxury in the Canary Islands | film

eEvery year, millions of tourists flock to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago located in the Atlantic Ocean where the sun always shines. Through still shots that resemble picture postcards, Mette Karla Albrechtsen’s pastel-colored documentary captures the leisure activities on offer: blue rooftop pools, pristine sandy beaches and concerts that stretch until dawn. But while the resort asks its visitors to put their minds on hold, the film takes a critical look at the human labor that fuels this luxurious paradise. Relaxing, relaxing scenes are interspersed with candid interviews with site workers, whose stories reveal the trials and tribunals behind the glossy travel brochures.

Some simply come to the Canary Islands looking to escape the routine. A long-time Danish resident laments the dismal weather in his homeland, but finds it difficult to develop lasting relationships in the archipelago, a transitional space where few of his immigrant friends have permanent roots. Others are fleeing more desperate circumstances – economic hardship and war. In a stunning scene, the film moves from a popular nightclub to a dreary pier where social workers care for a group of migrants rescued from dangerous sea voyages. Promised safe passage to Spain by traffickers, tens of thousands of asylum seekers are now in a state of uncertainty, while contributing their labor at various luxury resorts.

Aside from the ongoing humanitarian crisis, news of volcanic eruptions and climate change is spreading across the airwaves alarmingly. By intertwining the sights and sounds of environmental devastation and human toil, Albrechtsen’s film powerfully subverts the popular image of the islands as tourist havens, exposing the fragility and inequality that underpin this Edenic poem.