Romería

Carla Simón’s debut feature ESTIU 1993 (2017) fictionalised her own childhood, telling the story of Frida, a six-year-old girl whose parents have died of AIDS. Not strictly a sequel but nonetheless a companion film, ROMERÍA draws from a later chapter of Simón’s biography. In the summer of 2004, eighteen-year-old Marina, who dreams of becoming a filmmaker, travels to Vigo on the west coast of Spain to obtain a document from her paternal grandparents she needs for her university application. The trip becomes a sort of pilgrimage—the meaning of the film’s title—as she meets her father’s family for the first time. Eager to find out more about her parents, who were heroin addicts, she tries to ask questions but is met with contradictory stories and evasive behaviour, if not outright rebuffs. Confronted with this omertà born of stigma and shame, Marina is left to construct her own memories from the scraps of evidence that are left. Brilliant cinematographer Hélène Louvart turns the Atlantic Ocean and its myriad blues into a ravishing poetic backdrop to Marina’s journey of self-discovery, which Simón portrays with the kind of sensitivity and depth of feeling that can only derive from personal experience. (Giovanni Marchini Camia)

In the presence of Mitch Martin and Llúcia Garcia.
With the kind support of the Accion Cultural Española.

Carla Simón: LOVERS (2009, K), WOMEN (2009, K), BORN POSITIVE (2012, K), LIPSTICK (2013, K), LAS PEQUEÑAS COSAS (2014, K), ESTIU 1993 (2017), DESPUÉS TAMBIÉN (2018, K), CORRESPONDENCIA (2020, K, CO-DIRECTOR), ALCARRÀS (2022), CARTA DE MI MADRE PARA MI HIJO (2022, K)