The curtain rises on a new exhibition at the Casa Amarilla in Arrecife this week, which focuses on Lanzarote’s starring role in forty nine major film productions over the last fifty years.

The exhibition, entitled Celluloid Landscape, is yet another offshoot of the multi-discipline Lanzarote Bienal Art event and opens at 19.00 this Wednesday, January 27^th. 

The island got its first big screen break back in 1965, when its raw volcanic landscapes provided the dramatic backdrop for the hit sci-fi picture One Million Years BC. 

Audition successfully completed Lanzarote went on to prove the ideal location for a wide variety of productions, attracting sirens such as Rita Hayworth, Raquel Welch and Penelope Cruz as well as heavyweight directors such as Warner Herzog and Pedro Almodóvar.

From Wednesday visitors can view a wide range of exhibits at the Casa Amarilla, drawn from Lanzarote’s digital data bank Memoria Lanzarote, which chronicle the creation of all of the major on-island movies, including Broken Embraces, Journey To The Centre of The Earth, Krull, Maraira and of course One Million Years BC.

Whilst this retrospective celebrates a half century of celluloid, film production continues to flourish in both Lanzarote and the Canaries.  Thanks in no small part to the generous tax breaks offered to film makers by the regional government.  Who are also seeking to raise the profile of the islands within the visual arts world with other events such as the upcoming Lanzarote International Film Festival in April.