MALLORCA, THE MOVIE SET

At Puro Grand Hotel, a luxury hotel in Palma from the Puro Hotels chain, we love art in all its forms. That is why, for us, our location in the La Lonja de Palma is perfect as the best art galleries in the city surround us. But the art world is not only about paintings and sculptures.

Last year, we participated in the Mallorca Film Festival held at the Teatro Principal, attended by numerous celebrities from the world of film and art. For its forthcoming edition, we wanted to look back at the 6 best films shot on our beloved island so that you can travel to Mallorca through the power of cinema.

EL SECRETO DE LA PEDRIZA (1925)

Actor Francisco Aguiló Torrandel was the director of The Secret of The Pedriza. This blockbuster film was shot on location and became a tourist documentary about the island of Mallorca. Based on a 1921 novel by Adolfo Vázquez Humasqué, it is a drama about peasants, tobacco smuggling, love affairs, coast guards and betrayals. It was filmed in Sa Foradada, Torrent de Pareis and Son Marroig, among other legendary places in the Serra de Tramuntana (Tramantuna mountain range).

BLACK JACK

El Jonquet, the Paseo Marítimo zone, Cala Blava, Cala Santanyí and Torrent de Pareis are just some of the locations that feature in this film in which Spanish actors and artists such as Lola Flores, Manolo Caracol, José Nieto, José Jaspe and María Teresa Campos took part.

The film tells the story of Mike, a captain whose ship, "Black Jack", smuggles contraband along the Spanish coast. Tired of being chased by the Spanish Navy, Mike feels the need to change his life around. One day, his boat comes across a ship that has shipwrecked with some political refugees, including Ingrid Dekker, a young woman who falls in love with Mike.

LA ISLA DEL HOLANDÉS

The Dutchman's Island, directed by Sigrid Monleón, was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Goya Awards in 2000.

The main character, Lluís Dalmau, is a young university professor arriving on the island after being deported for political activism. It is 1969, and the island is in the midst of a financial crisis and debating whether the way out of the crisis is to build a tourist resort with foreign capital or to find a way to prevent the closure of the traditional salt industry that has sustained the island's economy since time immemorial. Seduced by the island and its people, Dalmau decides to postpone his plans to escape and begins an affair with Feli, an attractive farmer.

SEX AND LUCIA

This film, directed by Julio Medem, won 2 Goya Awards in 2021. Although shot in Formentera rather than Mallorca, its cinematographic value makes it more than worthy of being on our list.

It tells the story of Lucía, played by Paz Vega, who works as a waitress in the centre of Madrid. After her boyfriend, Lorenzo, disappears in strange circumstances, she decides to go to the island of Formentera in search of peace. Here, she must confront the dark side of her past relationship.

CLOUD ATLAS

Directed by The Wachowskis and Tom Twyker, it caused a huge buzz on the island thanks to its enormous budget and incredible cast: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Susan Sarandon.

EL PERFECTO DESCONOCIDO 

Irish actor Colt Meaney stars in this film (The Perfect Stranger in English), directed by Mallorcan Toni Bestard.

Ana Wagener, winner of the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2012, also stars in the film where Mark O'Reilly, a mysterious traveller, arrives in a small Mallorcan village and discreetly takes up residence in an old abandoned shop. The locals soon become enthusiastic, believing that Mark intends to reopen the shop and, in turn, revive the village. But one detail goes unnoticed by everyone: Mark has no intention of opening the shop. He doesn't even speak Spanish. The traveller's true intentions on the island are hidden in an old Polaroid photograph, which has led him there in search of answers.

THE CROWN

The famous Netflix series that chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II was filmed in numerous locations in Mallorca: Palma, Sóller, Andratx, Sant Elm and even in front of Puro Hotel Oasis Urbano, in Montenegro Street. 

If you are already considering your getaway, why not stay at Puro Grand Hotel and experience the island like a movie star?