Film Club 62: Romería

Marina (Llúcia Garcia) is 18 years old and orphaned at a young age. To obtain a signature for a scholarship application, she travels to the Atlantic coast of Spain, to her paternal grandparents she has never met. There she ends up in a maze of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and does not know whether she is welcome or will encounter resistance. As old emotions are stirred up, tenderness blossoms anew, and unspoken wounds from the past become visible, Marina tries to reconstruct the fragmented and often contradictory memories of her parents. Romería, partly based on the life of director Carla Simón, is an intimate and visually impressive drama in which the power of imagination offers comfort and reconciliation. The film is the final part of a trilogy in which Simón explores her personal history: whereas Summer 1993 and Alcarràs are set in the Catalan countryside, Simón now travels to northwestern Spain, to Galicia, highlighting a darkened chapter of Spanish history through the scars of a searching generation. Despite the different setting and tone compared to her previous films, Simón reaffirms herself with her third film as one of the most important voices in contemporary Spanish cinema. Romería was therefore a huge success in Spain, with more than 120,000 visitors in its first week, and had its world premiere at the Filmfestival van Cannes, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or.