Black Butterflies

The fact that people are having to flee their homes because of the climate crisis isn’t yet generally understood. As a consequence, most countries won’t grant asylum status to climate refugees. Black Butterflies is a call for change.

This animated film focuses on three women who relocate due to climate change. In Kenya, Tanit migrates with her children from the dry, uninhabitable region of Turkana to Nairobi. In India, Shaila leaves her small island of Ghoramara, which is shrinking due to rising sea levels, to work as a housekeeper in Dubai. And Valeria flies with her children to Paris after a hurricane destabilizes life on the French island of Saint Martin. All three women are hoping for a better life, but in their new environments they face a wall of bureaucracy as well as sexual and other forms of exploitation.

Based on the testimonies of climate change refugees, Black Butterflies contrasts the women’s former and current lives. Crisp computer animations alternate with beautiful soft-toned watercolors to reflect the women’s different cultural surroundings.