{ "id": "epw87h76db", "slug": "butterflys-tongue", "title": "Butterfly's Tongue", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films", "label": "Coming-of-age films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-before-2000", "label": "Coming-of-age films released before 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-before-2000" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Coming-of-age films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films", "label": "Coming-of-age films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Butterfly's Tongue (La lengua de las mariposas) is a 1999 Spanish drama by José Luis Cuerda, adapted by Rafael Azcona from three Manuel Rivas stories, about a Galician boy and his republican teacher Don Gregorio, whose friendship is destroyed by the 1936 Civil War; it won the Goya for Best Adapted Screenplay.", "snippet": "Butterfly's Tongue (La lengua de las mariposas) is a 1999 Spanish drama by José Luis Cuerda, adapted by Rafael Azcona from three Manuel Rivas stories, about a Galician boy and his republican teacher Don Gregorio, whose friendship is destroyed by the 1936 Civil War; it won the Goya for Best Adapted Screenplay.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-before-2000", "markdown": "# Butterfly's Tongue\n\n**Butterfly's Tongue** (*La lengua de las mariposas*) is a 1999 Spanish drama film directed by José Luis Cuerda, set in a Galician village in 1936, in the months before and after the outbreak of the [Spanish Civil War](https://www.edgepedia.org/spanish-civil-war). It follows the friendship between Moncho, an eight- or nine-year-old boy, and his elderly republican teacher Don Gregorio, a bond that the war and the Francoist repression destroy.[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41298) • [2](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-183/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director | José Luis Cuerda[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41298) |\n| Screenplay | Rafael Azcona, from the stories \"La lengua de las mariposas\", \"Carmiña\", and \"Un saxo en la niebla\" in Manuel Rivas's book *¿Qué me quieres, amor?*[3](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/rafael_azcona/mariposas_ficha_tecnica/) |\n| Lead cast | Fernando Fernán Gómez (Don Gregorio), Manuel Lozano (Moncho), Uxía Blanco (Rosa), Gonzalo Martín Uriarte (Ramón), Guillermo Toledo (O'Lis)[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41298) |\n| Release | Madrid premiere 24 September 1999; ICAA certification 8 October 1999[3](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/rafael_azcona/mariposas_ficha_tecnica/) • [1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41298) |\n| Runtime | Reported as 99 minutes by the ICAA, 97 minutes by several festival and regional catalogs, and 95 minutes by the San Sebastián Festival[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41298) • [2](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-183/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas) • [4](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/1999/sections_and_films/official_section/7/470015/in) |\n| Spanish box office | 4,635,485.98 euros from 1,182,356 admissions[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41298) |\n| Awards | 13 Goya nominations; won the Goya for Best Adapted Screenplay (Rafael Azcona)[5](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and setting\n\nThe film opens in early 1936 in a small Galician village. Moncho, nicknamed \"Gorrión\" (Sparrow), returns to school after a long illness, afraid because he has heard that teachers beat their pupils. His teacher Don Gregorio turns out to be different: he comes to the boy's house to collect him, and teaches things both useful and unacademic, such as the American origin of the potato and why butterflies have a spiral tongue, the detail that gives the film its title.[2](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-183/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas) • [4](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/1999/sections_and_films/official_section/7/470015/in)\n\nWith the arrival of spring, Don Gregorio takes his classes into the countryside, holding that observing nature teaches more than hours of indoor lessons. He shares with Moncho his knowledge of literature, nature, and, as the synopsis puts it, even women. The relationship is cut short on 18 July 1936, when the military uprising begins the Civil War and the values the teacher has transmitted are pushed aside.[4](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/1999/sections_and_films/official_section/7/470015/in) • [6](https://www.movistarplus.es/cine/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas/ficha?id=124689&tipo=E)\n\nThe ending shows the cost of fear. When the fascists win in the village and begin persecuting supporters of the republic, Don Gregorio is among those detained. Moncho and his family, themselves republicans, are driven to shout insults at the teacher as he is taken away, to conceal their own sympathies and escape repression.[7](https://www.cndh.org.mx/sites/default/files/documentos/2022-07/PG583.pdf) A teaching guide prepared for classroom use identifies fear and totalitarianism as the film's central themes, operating at two levels: the villagers' fear that makes them renounce their beliefs to avoid reprisals, and Moncho's childhood fear of school.[8](https://valoras.uc.cl/images/centro-recursos/docentes/RolDocente/Herramientas/Cine-foro_La-Lengua-de-las-mariposas.pdf)\n\n## From page to screen\n\nThe film adapts three independent stories from Manuel Rivas's collection *¿Qué me quieres, amor?*, published in 1996 (in Galician as *Que me queres, amor?*): \"La lengua de las mariposas\", \"Carmiña\", and \"Un saxo en la niebla\". The collection won Rivas the Premio Nacional de Narrativa in 1996.[3](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/rafael_azcona/mariposas_ficha_tecnica/) • [9](https://elpais.com/cultura/2024-10-29/guia-de-lectura-de-manuel-rivas-premio-nacional-de-las-letras.html) Rivas later recalled writing the title story in one sitting during a feverish day, with a story in mind about the period of republican hope, when children were finally to receive a microscope their teacher had ordered, to see the invisible.[10](https://www.aisge.es/cuentos-rodados-manuel-rivas-y-la-lengua-de-las-mariposas)\n\nRafael Azcona, one of Spain's leading screenwriters, wove the three stories into a single narrative. A scholarly study of the adaptation notes one apparently small but structurally important change: in Rivas's story Moncho is nearly six years old, while in the film he is eight or nine, which allows the story to work as a novel of apprenticeship.[11](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas-de-manuel-rivas-a-rafael-azcona---o-el-golpe-a-la-repblica-de-los-maestros-0/html/01d4b928-82b2-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_4.html) Cuerda himself described the film as showing how coexistence in a mid-sized town among ordinary, middle-class people is finally broken \"by decree, because someone decides that the normality of life does not have to exist\".[12](https://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-22012004000200009&script=sci_arttext)\n\nAt the film's [San Sebastián](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-sebastian) premiere, Cuerda said: \"I have made a film about freedom, dignity, and survival\".[13](https://elpais.com/diario/1999/09/24/cultura/938124011_850215.html)\n\n## Production and reception\n\nShooting ran from 29 June to 14 August 1998.[14](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=41298) The production companies were Las Producciones del Escorpión, SOGETEL, Grupo Voz, Canal+, Televisión Española, and TVG, with Fernando Bovaira and Cuerda as executive producers; Javier Salmones was the cinematographer, Nacho Ruiz Capillas the editor, and [Alejandro Amenábar](https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-amenabar) the composer.[3](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/rafael_azcona/mariposas_ficha_tecnica/) • [6](https://www.movistarplus.es/cine/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas/ficha?id=124689&tipo=E)\n\nThe film was screened in the Official Section of the 47th San Sebastián Film Festival in 1999, out of competition.[4](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/1999/sections_and_films/official_section/7/470015/in) In Spain it drew about 1.18 million spectators and grossed about 4.6 million euros, appearing among the most-viewed Spanish films of 1999 in a year when Spanish cinema reached roughly a 14 percent market share.[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41298) • [15](https://elpais.com/diario/2000/03/31/cultura/954453609_850215.html) At the [Goya Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-awards) it received 13 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay.[5](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas/)\n\nCritical reception was largely favorable. FilmAffinity records a user rating of 7.5 from more than 50,000 votes, and critics quoted there praised the ending; Roger Ebert of the *Chicago Sun-Times* called it a rare feat of being \"at once dark and deeply rewarding\".[16](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film545489.html) Some reviewers were more reserved: SensaCine's critic gave it 2.0 out of 5, finding the screenplay sentimental despite the strength of its message about freedom of expression and teaching.[17](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-28109/sensacine/)\n\n## Historical and educational significance\n\nThe film has become a standard reference for the memory of the teachers of the [Second Spanish Republic](https://www.edgepedia.org/second-spanish-republic) (1931–1939). An academic study describes it as narrating, through the innocent eyes of the child Moncho, everyday life in rural Galicia under the Republic, closing with the darkness of the Francoist dictatorship, and uses it to connect film sequences with the history of education in Galicia.[18](https://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000523/00000059.pdf) A 2023 *El País* article on the film *El maestro que prometió el mar* noted that Cuerda's film \"recovered the memory of the persecuted teachers\" in 1999.[19](https://elpais.com/cultura/2023-11-10/el-maestro-que-prometio-el-mar-un-instante-perdido-de-memoria-historica.html)\n\nScholars have also read the story as a defense of narrative against forgetting: an analysis of Rivas's tale argues that it recovers the historicity of the Republic's educational project and configures narration as an element for countering the politics of oblivion and impunity.[20](https://www.aacademica.org/andres.olaizola/24) Comparative work has paired the film with Andrés Wood's *Machuca* (Chile, 2004) to examine education and authoritarianism under dictatorships.[21](https://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/educacao/article/view/edu.2014.182.10) In Spanish-language teaching abroad, the film is used to contextualize the historical, sociopolitical, and cultural elements of the Second Republic.[22](https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=826499)\n\n## References\n\n1. [LENGUA DE LAS MARIPOSAS, LA, ICAA Film Database](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41298)\n2. [La lengua de las mariposas, Institut Valencià de Cultura film catalog](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-183/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas)\n3. [La lengua de las mariposas (1999), ficha técnica, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/rafael_azcona/mariposas_ficha_tecnica/)\n4. [La lengua de las mariposas / The Tongue of the Butterflies, San Sebastián Film Festival 1999](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/1999/sections_and_films/official_section/7/470015/in)\n5. [La lengua de las mariposas, Premios Goya](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas/)\n6. [La lengua de las mariposas, Movistar Plus](https://www.movistarplus.es/cine/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas/ficha?id=124689&tipo=E)\n7. [Perspectiva Global 583, CNDH (Mexico)](https://www.cndh.org.mx/sites/default/files/documentos/2022-07/PG583.pdf)\n8. [Cine-foro: La lengua de las mariposas, Universidad Católica de Chile](https://valoras.uc.cl/images/centro-recursos/docentes/RolDocente/Herramientas/Cine-foro_La-Lengua-de-las-mariposas.pdf)\n9. [Las cinco lecturas recomendadas de Manuel Rivas, El País (2024)](https://elpais.com/cultura/2024-10-29/guia-de-lectura-de-manuel-rivas-premio-nacional-de-las-letras.html)\n10. [Cuentos rodados: Manuel Rivas y La lengua de las mariposas, AISGE](https://www.aisge.es/cuentos-rodados-manuel-rivas-y-la-lengua-de-las-mariposas)\n11. [Raquel Macciuci, La lengua de las mariposas: de Manuel Rivas a Rafael Azcona, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/la-lengua-de-las-mariposas-de-manuel-rivas-a-rafael-azcona---o-el-golpe-a-la-repblica-de-los-maestros-0/html/01d4b928-82b2-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_4.html)\n12. [El texto migratorio: nota sobre la adaptación cinematográfica de tres cuentos de Manuel Rivas, SciELO](https://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-22012004000200009&script=sci_arttext)\n13. [\"He hecho una película sobre la libertad\", El País (24 September 1999)](https://elpais.com/diario/1999/09/24/cultura/938124011_850215.html)\n14. [LENGUA DE LAS MARIPOSAS, LA, ICAA film file PDF](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=41298)\n15. ['Todo sobre mi madre' fue la película española más vista en 1999, El País (31 March 2000)](https://elpais.com/diario/2000/03/31/cultura/954453609_850215.html)\n16. [La lengua de las mariposas (1999), FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film545489.html)\n17. [La lengua de las mariposas, La Crítica de SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-28109/sensacine/)\n18. [María Eugenia Bolaño Amigo, Educació i Història: Revista d'Història de l'Educació, núm. 33 (2019)](https://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000523/00000059.pdf)\n19. ['El maestro que prometió el mar': la memoria histórica perdida, El País (2023)](https://elpais.com/cultura/2023-11-10/el-maestro-que-prometio-el-mar-un-instante-perdido-de-memoria-historica.html)\n20. [Andrés Olaizola, Historicidad de la Escuela española y narración en \"La lengua de las mariposas\"](https://www.aacademica.org/andres.olaizola/24)\n21. [Educação e ditaduras: a memória traumática nos filmes Machuca e La lengua de las mariposas, Educação Unisinos](https://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/educacao/article/view/edu.2014.182.10)\n22. [Notas para el estudio de La lengua de las mariposas en la clase de lengua y cultura españolas, Dialnet](https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=826499)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released before 2000*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/butterflys-tongue", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/butterflys-tongue.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Butterfly's Tongue\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/butterflys-tongue. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Butterfly's Tongue](https://www.edgepedia.org/butterflys-tongue)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/butterflys-tongue](https://www.edgepedia.org/butterflys-tongue). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Butterfly's Tongue\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/butterflys-tongue. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Butterfly's Tongue is a 1999 Spanish drama by José Luis Cuerda, adapted by Rafael Azcona from three Manuel Rivas stories, about a Galician boy and his republican teacher Don Gregorio, whose friendship is destroyed by the 1936 Civil War; it won the Goya for Best Adapted Screenplay." }