AL-BUHAYRA

A production by La Perifèrica Produccions, co-produced with IB3 / Balearic Islands Television, with the support of ICIB / Institute of Cultural Industries of the Balearic Islands and the Consell de Mallorca.

Synopsis

The story of Al-buhayra (s’Albufera de Mallorca), from the Christian conquest and the wealth of its wetlands to the drainage projects, the English presence for over 30 years, its purchase by Mussolini and his attempt to establish an Italian colony, through to its designation as a Natural Park and the fever of tourism.

Al-Buhayra… the little sea… s’Albufera, an inhospitable landscape shaped by dualities: nature and humankind, land and water, farmers and landowners. A living entity in constant transformation, s’Albufera has always been here, in the north of Mallorca. We have known it since time immemorial: ever-changing and impossible to tame. Everything we know about it before the 20th century comes from maps, plans and drawings, stories and legends, songs and writings of all kinds. We know so much about this place that, inevitably, there is far more we do not know.

Al-Buhayra explores animal and human life, marshlands, reed beds, canals and centuries of unequal struggles. It also takes us back to the New Majorca Land Company and Mussolini, to the rice industry and fishing, to Gatamoix and to the designation of s’Albufera as the first Natural Park in the Balearic Islands. Through the voices of Pere Perelló, Francesc Lillo, Antònia Morey and many others, the film conveys the pulse of s’Albufera through first-hand accounts.