The Firefly (2015 film)

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The Firefly (Spanish: La luciérnaga) is a 2015 Colombian-American romance and fantasy drama film written and directed by Ana Maria Hermida. It stars Carolina Guerra and Olga Segura and is often described as the first Colombian lesbian film. The movie premiered in Europe at the 2016 Barcelona International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Plot
Lucia is married for four years to Adrian, a distant banker. On what should have been her brother Andrés’s wedding day, Lucia learns from a death notice that he died in a traffic accident. Because the siblings were estranged, Lucia is the last family member to know. At Andrés’s apartment, she meets his fiancée, Mariana, who is also grieving. The two women grow closer and begin to look after each other, and their bond deepens into romance. Lucia faces a choice between staying with Adrian or pursuing a relationship with Mariana. The story also explores Lucia and Andrés’s relationship through childhood flashbacks and dreamlike sequences after his death. The film uses Gothic and Catholic imagery to express grief and confusion, in a style Hermida calls “goth magic realism.”

Background
The Firefly is inspired by Hermida’s own life, though it is not autobiographical. Hermida has said her younger brother’s death in 2007 and the way his girlfriend supported her afterward helped shape the film’s ideas. The movie is non-linear and includes many flashbacks and symbolic imagery. It was shot in 2013 mainly in Colombia, with the aim of presenting a positive, non-political view of the country and using Bogotá’s cityscapes as a backdrop.

Production and release
The project ran fundraising campaigns on Kickstarter, raising about $10,000 in 2015. The Firefly screened at several film festivals in 2015 and 2016, including the Atlanta Film Festival, the Madrid International Film Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival, the Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney, and the Colombian Film Festival of New York, among others. It opened in Colombian theaters on November 10, 2016, at Cine Tonalá in Bogotá, and became available on Netflix in 2017.

Details
Running time: 85 minutes
Language: Spanish
Countries: Colombia, United States
Cast includes Carolina Guerra and Olga Segura
Creative team: Ana Maria Hermida (writer/director), Luisa Casas (producer); cinematography by Alonso Homs; editing by Juan Falla and Travis Graalman; music by Bartek Gliniak and Sol Okarina; distributed by Producciones iAMredHam. The film’s first release date was March 2015 at the Atlanta Film Festival.