Searching for Satyrus

Award-winning filmmaker and photographer Rena Effendi embarks on a personal quest to track down the very rare Satyrus Effendi, a butterfly that can only be found on the high mountains on the disputed border between Armenia and Azerbaijain, two countries that have been at war for 30 years. The Satyrus Effendi was named in honour of Rena’s father, a lepidopterist who passed away in 1991 when she was just 14. As she tracks down the butterfly, Rena learns more about her dad, a man of many wives and, it seems, many lives…

A gripping quest that reveals a remarkable part of the world little known to western audiences while examining issues from war and nationalism to global heating and extinction. Ultimately, however, Effendi’s search for her father’s butterfly becomes a moving reckoning with the secrets and lies in her family.

Patrick Barkham, The Guardian

A wonderful piece of documentary filmmaking that conveys beauty, memory and conflict between nations. It’s a quietly beautiful and incredibly nuanced depiction of an individual coming to terms with their grief and taking life one step at a time to find closure in their family’s past.

William Curzon, UK Film Review