‘Malvasía’, a fiction series about the world of wine in Lanzarote, is taking shape these months in IsLABentura Canarias, by the director and screenwriter Laura Pérez Gómez.
IsLABentura Canarias is an international script laboratory organized by the Government of the Canary Islands, through Canary Islands Film.
Pérez is working on the script for ‘Malvasía’, which, according to her, “has some interesting female characters and a curious mix to explore of drama, mystery and magical realism.”
In this fictional story, Ximena, an oenologist at Bodegas Fénix, discovers a mysterious isolated strain at the foot of a volcano, different from the Malvasía they cultivate. Vic, a prestigious biochemist, travels to Lanzarote to investigate it and discovers that the vine has regenerative properties never seen before.
Diego, the new manager of the winery, sees in this discovery a possibility to revive the business, but Ximena opposes its commercial exploitation. Meanwhile, the earth trembles more and more strongly.
Like the rest of the screenwriters participating in the laboratory, Laura Pérez was able to visit Lanzarote beforehand to document herself as best as possible on how to approach the series, in whose process she also has the tutorial support of Arantxa Cuesta, screenwriter of series such as ‘El internado: Las cumbres’ or ‘La cocinera de Castamar’.
The series explores such universal themes as ambition or identity and other more particular and exclusive to the island, such as volcanic eruptions or the strains of the malvasia grape variety, which has also attracted the attention of Promercat de Valencia, whose organization has just selected this script, still in development, to present it in its next edition.
It also happens that its author, the director and screenwriter Laura Pérez Gómez, is participating for the second time in IsLABentura, a laboratory that in 2022 selected and awarded another of her stories, ‘Different Species’, this time in feature film format, which soon got an interested producer and is currently in the development phase. It will be her first film and in it she talks about second chances and the possibility of inventing a life.
It should also be noted that ‘Different Species’ obtained a Development grant from the Government of the Canary Islands in 2024, with the Canarian production company Amissus Media being the beneficiary, which is co-producing the film together with two Valencian production companies: Pegatum Transmedia and Dacsa Producciones. A few months ago, the entire team made a location visit to La Gomera.
IsLABentura 2025
“I have no doubt that being selected in IsLABentura is one of the best things that has happened to me professionally, and I couldn't be more grateful,” explained Laura Pérez in her first experience with this laboratory. “Finally visiting the places I have imagined writing this story is essential to be able to build a solid script, and it will allow me to develop the story with a good base of documentation and field work.”
The 2025 edition began last April with the arrival in Fuerteventura of the new group of screenwriters selected by public call. A team that is made up this year of 16 people, who have prestigious screenwriters as tutors.
In this first phase, each one was able to visit the island where their story is located to obtain documentation, later returning to their places of origin to continue the work online.
They will meet again in person in July in Gran Canaria for a training meeting, and in October in La Palma, for the final phase, as it will be in that month when they must present their respective scripts to local, national and international producers invited by the Government of the Canary Islands.