Don’t let the title fool you. “Bitter Christmas” is not a cozy holiday movie. Pedro Almodóvar’s new film sends a grieving woman out of December Madrid and onto an island of black lava, green water, and vineyards dug into volcanic ash. The good news for travelers: almost every landscape in it is real, public, and reachable in a single day’s drive around southern Lanzarote.
Bitter Christmas at a Glance (TL;DR)
- Original title: Amarga Navidad
- Director: Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast: Bárbara Lennie (Elsa), Leonardo Sbaraglia (Raúl), Victoria Luengo (Patricia), Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, Quim Gutiérrez
- US release: November 13, 2026 in New York and Los Angeles, nationwide November 25 (Sony Pictures Classics)
- Already out in: Spain (March 20, 2026) and the UK and Ireland (August 28, 2026)
- Story setting: Madrid and Lanzarote, across two timelines (2004 and 2026)
- Filming locations: Madrid and Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
- Confirmed Lanzarote spots: El Golfo and Charco de los Clicos, La Geria, and the LZ-56 road through the Parque Natural de los Volcanes
- Production dates: June 9 to August 12, 2025
What the Movie Is About, and Why It Leaves Madrid
The story runs on two tracks. In 2004, Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) is an advertising director whose mother dies over a long December weekend. She buries herself in work until a panic attack forces her to stop, and she escapes to Lanzarote with her friend Patricia while her partner stays behind in Madrid. In 2026, a screenwriter and director named Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is writing a script about Elsa and the people around her. The two timelines come from the official Sony Pictures Classics synopsis, and the Lanzarote escape from the plot outline published by Rolling Stone en Español.
The title nods to a song sung by Chavela Vargas, Rolling Stone notes, which tells you the mood.
So Lanzarote isn’t a stand-in for anywhere. The island plays itself, as the place Elsa escapes to.
Almodóvar has history here. His 2009 film “Broken Embraces” grew out of a photograph he took on El Golfo beach during his first visit, according to the Lanzarote Film Commission, which also quotes him on the island: “For me it was not a landscape, but a state of mind, a character.” “Bitter Christmas” is his second feature shot on Lanzarote.
El Golfo and Charco de los Clicos: The Green Lagoon
This is the best-documented location in the film. In late July 2025, with the shoot in its seventh week, the crew was working on the black-sand beach beside Charco de los Clicos in El Golfo, on the island’s southwest coast, as reported at the time by La Voz de Lanzarote and Atlántico Hoy. Guía Repsol adds that Bárbara Lennie and Victoria Luengo filmed sequences here.
The lagoon itself sits inside a half-collapsed volcanic crater open to the sea. Trapped salt water, algae, and microorganisms turn it a bright, almost artificial green against the black sand and rust-colored cliffs.
Can you visit? Yes. Park in the dirt lot at the entrance to El Golfo village and follow the marked path to the viewpoint, a short walk of about five minutes. The lagoon is protected, so you look at it from above: you can’t walk up to the water, swim in it, or take sand or stones. The old access from the Los Hervideros side is closed because the cliffs are unstable, per Canarias Lovers. El Golfo is about 20 minutes from Playa Blanca by car, and the village’s seafront fish restaurants are a good reason to time your visit around lunch or sunset.
La Geria: Vineyards in Volcanic Ash
The second confirmed location is La Geria, a wine region that looks like nowhere else. Each vine grows in its own hollow dug into black volcanic ash, sheltered from the trade winds by a low semicircular stone wall. Seen from the road, it’s thousands of small craters running up the hillsides.
The film used “the unique vineyards of La Geria,” per Gazette Life, and ¡Hola! lists it among the landscapes that appear on screen. There’s a paper trail too: before the shoot, Lanzarote’s island government announced traffic restrictions on the LZ-30, the road that runs through La Geria, from late July to mid-August 2025, according to Canarias7.
Can you visit? Yes. The LZ-30 between Mozaga and Uga is a public road with wineries along it that welcome visitors, including El Grifo (founded in 1775, with its own wine museum), Bodega La Geria, and Bodegas Rubicón. The wine to try is the local white Malvasía, which comes dry, semi-dry, or sweet. If you’re tasting, take a tour or agree on a driver first.
The Volcano Roads: LZ-56 and LZ-67
The LZ-56 “also stars in some shots of the film,” says Guía Repsol, which calls it a very cinematic road, remote and solitary, crossing the Parque Natural de los Volcanes. The Canarias7 report backs that up: the LZ-56 between Mancha Blanca and La Geria was on the list of roads to be restricted for filming, along with a stretch of the LZ-67 between La Santa and Yaiza.
One caution. This volcanic park borders Timanfaya National Park, and it’s easy to blur the two, but no source checked places a “Bitter Christmas” scene inside the national park itself. The LZ-67 appears only in that pre-shoot notice, so count it as likely, not confirmed.
Can you visit? Yes. These are ordinary public roads, free to drive. They cross protected land, so stay on the road and the marked paths instead of walking out onto the lava. Timanfaya isn’t a confirmed filming location, but it’s right next door and worth adding: the Montañas del Fuego visit is open daily from 09:00 to 15:45, costs €30 for adults, includes a 35-minute coach route through the craters, and has to be booked online for a time slot, since no tickets are sold at the gate.
The House in La Asomada
Elsa and Patricia need somewhere to hide, and the film gives them a villa in La Asomada, a hillside area in the south of the island. Guía Repsol names the property as La Cabaña and describes three bedrooms with panoramic Atlantic views and a pool. ¡Hola! names the same villa and notes that houses in this area keep to the island’s traditional style: white walls, sober lines, and thick walls that keep the interiors cool.
Can you visit? Not really. It’s a private property, not a visitor attraction, so this one is best admired on screen.
LagOmar, Nazaret
LagOmar is a house built into an old volcanic quarry in the village of Nazaret: white terraces, tunnels, and staircases carved straight into the rock. According to the museum itself, in a statement carried by the local outlets Isla de Lanzarote and MassCultura, the El Deseo team spent a day filming there in August 2025, working around the house’s central lake. Guía Repsol recommends LagOmar in its guide to the film’s Lanzarote but stops short of calling it a filming location, and no outlet says which scene was shot there. So treat this one as the museum’s own claim until someone matches it on screen.
The house comes with its own legend. Omar Sharif is said to have bought it while filming on the island in the 1970s, then lost it days later in a game of bridge. It’s a good story, and it’s told as legend rather than documented fact.
Can you visit? Yes. LagOmar operates as a museum, open daily from 10:00 to 18:00, with entry around €10 (older guides list lower prices, so check before you go). There’s a restaurant and a cave bar, La Cueva, on site.
The Airport and the Hospital
Two less glamorous locations round out the Lanzarote shoot. Guía Repsol mentions a brief sequence at the island’s César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport, and Canarias7 reported ahead of filming that the production had planned work at the airport and had applied to shoot at the Hospital Doctor José Molina Orosa in Arrecife. The hospital appears only in that advance report, so it’s unconfirmed whether those scenes were shot or made the final cut.
Can you visit? You’ll pass through the airport anyway. It’s the only one on the island.
Madrid: Where the Story Starts
The Madrid half of the shoot is far less documented. Filming began on June 9, 2025, and the capital hosts the city scenes tied to the characters’ everyday lives, but outlets describe them only in general terms.
One site, Locationow, names Gran Vía and the Malasaña neighborhood. No second outlet backs that up, so take both as likely rather than confirmed.
Can you visit? Of course. Gran Vía and Malasaña are a ten-minute walk from each other in central Madrid, and December is when the city’s Christmas lights are on.
Not in This Movie: Famara and Mirador del Río
It’s easy to mix up Almodóvar’s two Lanzarote films. Famara beach, Mirador del Río, and the roundabout by the César Manrique Foundation in Tahíche were backdrops for “Broken Embraces” in 2009, as Gazette Life points out. ¡Hola! adds that Jameos del Agua and Mirador del Río don’t appear in “Bitter Christmas” either. All of them are worth seeing. They just belong to a different film.
How the Shoot Went
The production filmed for 45 days in total, about 15 of them on Lanzarote in July and August 2025, according to ¡Hola!. It wrapped on the island on August 12, 2025, and producer Agustín Almodóvar called it “intense, complex, and sometimes very difficult work” because it was shot entirely in natural settings, with no studio sets. Local residents aged 7 to 75 worked as extras. Both details come from La Voz de Lanzarote.
The film opened in Spain on March 20, 2026, competed at Cannes in May, and played Toronto and New York before its US release.
Planning a Bitter Christmas Day on Lanzarote
The southern locations line up neatly into one loop by car:
- Morning: drive the LZ-30 through La Geria and stop at a winery.
- Late morning: take the LZ-56 north through the volcano fields, then the LZ-67 past Timanfaya (book Montañas del Fuego ahead if you want the crater route).
- Afternoon: continue to Yaiza and out to El Golfo for a late fish lunch and the lagoon viewpoint at golden hour.
LagOmar is in the center-north of the island, so pair it with Teguise on a separate half day.
A car is the practical way to do this, since buses to El Golfo are limited. December suits the film’s mood and is comfortable for touring: Lanzarote averages around 21°C by day and 14°C at night that month, per Weather2Travel.
FAQ
Where was Bitter Christmas filmed?
In Madrid and on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The confirmed Lanzarote locations are El Golfo beach with the Charco de los Clicos lagoon, the La Geria vineyards, and the LZ-56 road through the Parque Natural de los Volcanes, with further filming reported at a villa in La Asomada, at the island’s airport, and (according to the museum) at LagOmar in Nazaret.
Where is the green lagoon in Bitter Christmas?
It’s Charco de los Clicos (also called Charco Verde) at El Golfo, on Lanzarote’s southwest coast. You can see it from a public viewpoint a short walk from the village car park. Swimming isn’t allowed.
Is Bitter Christmas actually a Christmas movie?
Only loosely. The story starts with a death over a December long weekend, and the title comes from a song, but it’s a drama about grief and writing, not a holiday comedy.
When does Bitter Christmas come out in the US?
November 13, 2026 in New York and Los Angeles, expanding nationwide on November 25, from Sony Pictures Classics. It opened in Spain in March 2026.
Did Almodóvar film on Lanzarote before?
Yes. Parts of “Broken Embraces” (2009) were shot there, including at El Golfo, Famara beach, and Jameos del Agua.
Can you visit the house from Bitter Christmas?
The villa in La Asomada is private. LagOmar, the other house connected to the shoot, is open daily as a museum.
