Green Butterflies – A Love Story the World Wasn’t Ready For
Mateo is a bright high school student whose life changes when he falls in love with Daniel. When their relationship is exposed, the school and community react with cruelty and rejection. Faced with bullying and institutional abuse, Mateo is forced to choose between staying silent or standing up for who he is — at a devastating cost.
“Already with our birth, we all begin to die a little. Some earlier than others.”
These words open Green Butterflies and instantly make it clear — this is not just a story about love, but about death, judgment, cruelty, and the suffocating weight of a society that denies some people the right to simply exist. This Colombian film by Gustavo Nieto Roa doesn’t soften the blow. It hits where it hurts the most — the heart, the family, the school, and the toxic norms we keep pretending are normal.
📚 The Story
Mateo is a bright and popular high school student. He seems to have it all: intelligence, charisma, confidence. But when he falls in love with Daniel, another boy at school, their world shrinks overnight. What should have been a joyful discovery turns into a brutal journey of bullying, betrayal, and heartbreak. Their relationship is exposed — publicly, maliciously, and with devastating consequences. The school system offers no protection. Families respond with fear, shame, or silence. And the two boys are left alone in a world that refuses to accept them.
🎭 Performances
Deivi Duarte, as Mateo, carries the emotional weight of the film with powerful vulnerability. Kevin Bury brings quiet strength to Daniel’s character — the kind of presence that doesn’t shout but lingers. Their chemistry feels real and delicate. Supporting performances round out the picture of a hostile environment, where every adult either enables or ignores the suffering of the students.
🏫 Social commentary
The strongest element of Green Butterflies is its unflinching look at institutional failure. The school isn’t a safe haven — it’s a machine of repression. The principal and certain teachers actively contribute to the boys’ misery. The film doesn’t sugarcoat anything. There’s no inspirational speech, no magical teacher saving the day. Just silence, complicity, and rules used as weapons.
💔 Emotional core
This film dives deep into the emotional aftermath of being labeled “different.” Depression, isolation, suicide — it’s all there, raw and honest. One of the most heartbreaking moments is Mateo’s desperate attempt to talk to his mother. She doesn’t see him, even though he’s standing right in front of her. That’s the message: you don’t have to be a bully to be part of the problem — sometimes doing nothing is just as damaging.
📣 A film with a message
Green Butterflies is more than a movie. It’s a cry for help. It speaks not only for LGBTQ+ youth but for every young person who’s been made to feel invisible, unwanted, or unsafe. The film ends with a note about Colombia’s 2015 educational reform mandating respect for sexual orientation — a law born from tragedies like this. The film came two years later, like a mirror held up to all the pain that pushed that change.
🦋 And that’s the thing…
This isn’t an easy watch. And it shouldn’t be. Green Butterflies stays with you long after the credits roll — like a whisper from someone who didn’t make it, asking us why love has to hurt so damn much. You won’t find comfort here, but you will find truth. And sometimes, that’s what we need most.
