Romería

New from acclaimed writer-director Carla Simón, the tender, luminous Romeria (‘pilgrimage’) follows a young woman (and budding filmmaker) on a voyage of discovery about her late parents. A directly autobiographical work, it’s the concluding episode of Simón’s trio of films, following Alcarràs and Summer 1993, that explore her own upbringing and family past. This time, she follows an older protagonist, who’s on the cusp of adulthood when new information throws her selfhood into flux. 

18-year-old orphan Marina (Llúcia Garcia) must travel to Vigo on Spain’s Atlantic coast to get a signature for a scholarship application from the grandparents she has never met. There, she navigates a sea of new family members, uncertain whether she will be embraced or met with resistance. Uncovering long-buried emotions and unspoken wounds from the past, Marina pieces together fragmented and often contradictory memories of the parents she barely remembers.

“Dazzling… follows its own path of audacious, heady discovery” ★★★★★ Financial Times