After being impressed by her previous film, “Alcarras”, about a family of peach farmers, I was really hoping Carla Simón's follow-up “Romería” would make it to MIFF this year, which it certainly did, although I was surprised by how little attention the film received at Cannes where it premiered. After seeing the film now, I am even more puzzled by the muted response to “ Romería” as I thought it was another wonderful family drama from Simón, which combines a coming of age storyline, with the discovery of family secrets that some members would prefer stay hidden.
In “Romería”, eighteen year old Marina travels to Vigo to meet with the family of her parents who died when she was very young. The family is welcoming to the young girl but we can see through half spoken conversations often held through whispers, and certain looks given by the family members that perhaps all is not what is seems. I love the way Simón has told her story through Marina's eyes, which means we, as an audience, only receive certain information at the same time Marina does. Simón never provides us with any details before Marina knows, so we go through the journey of discovery with her. Because of this, we find ourselves feeling what Marina is feeling; when she is shocked about something, so are we, or when she feels like something isn't right or that she is not being told the full truth, we too start to question what is being explained to us or what we thought we already knew about Marina and her parents.
Carla Simón paces her story nicely without rushing, and doesn't reveal all of the family's secrets at once but it doesn't take long for Marina to realise that what she has been told about her parents her whole life, may not in fact be the truth. Thanks to her mother's diary that she has access to and some old video footage that she shot, Marina has her own opinion of what her parents were like, and through this footage she tries to retrace her mother's footsteps, armed with her own video camera to record her journey. She discovers pretty quickly that her father's family are sick of all the secrets, and are happy to talk, Marina just has to find the correct questions to ask them. Her curiosity forces Marina to come face-to-face with the dark side of heroin addiction and her parent's place within that.
As I said, Simón tells her story in a nice leisurely pace that feels real and naturalistic of people learning about one another. At times you cannot help but feel for poor Marina when someone will say something off-the-cuff about either her mother or father, and it contradicts what she knows or thought. You can see this poor girl trying to process the new information, while also wondering if she has been lied to her whole life, and if so, why? Throughout the film, two things remain constant; the first being that everyone thinks she is the spitting image of her mother, and the other is her attraction to her cousin Nuno. The two get on like a house on fire, and you could cut the sexual tension between them with a knife, and they quickly become thick as thieves. Whilst most of the family welcome Marina with open arms, her grandparents are very cautious around her, with the grandmother almost hostile. When her grandfather gives Marina a large sum of money to pay for her schooling, she is immediately offended and sees it as a way the family is paying her off, to make her stop questioning the past. Her rejection of the cash is the catalyst for the family to finally confront their past and come to terms with it despite how unsavoury it may have been.
The lead role of Marina in “Romería” is played by newcomer Llúcia Garcia and she is utterly outstanding. She gives the girl the right amount of innocence, wonder and naivete for someone travelling by herself for the first time, whilst also giving her an inner strength to fight for the dignity of her parent's memory. Garcia is also excellent at showing her confusion, when things are said that contradict everything she thought she knew, and does a great job of exposing Marina's pain when she learns the truth, even though at times she tries to hide how much she is actually hurting. Garcia actually has a double role in the film because about two thirds of the way through “Romería”, Simón changes the naturalistic way of telling her story by including a dream sequence (that works like a flashback) where Marina first meets her parents on a rooftop, before we see their life and love together, with Garcia now playing the role of her mother and Mitch Martin (who plays Nuno) filling the role of the father. As the mother, Garcia gives a much different performance, creating two distinct characters. Here she is free, loose and with a world weariness behind her eyes. This is a girl who loves the night life, and who gets mixed up with drugs in a bad way, and Garcia does a fantastic job of showing the mother strung out, willing to do anything for a hit. The innocence felt in her performance as Marina does not exist at all when Garcia is playing the mother, and it is incredible how different the two women feel whilst being played by the same actress. It is also seriously impressive how Garcia makes the mother feel so much older than when she is playing Marina, who comes across as so young and fresh. One thing that cannot be denied is the true love between the mother and father, which feels so real thanks to the fantastic chemistry between Garcia and Martin. I must say that while this fantasy sequence is well shot and acted, I found it to be the one misstep of “Romería”, as a film that was once grounded in such truth and honesty is now clouded with a scene of either fantasy or flashback. This is the biggest chance Simón takes with her film, and sadly I do not think she pulls it off, because whilst these these scenes in and of themselves are pretty great, I just felt that in the context of the rest of “Romería” the scenes did not work, due to the way Simón gives us this information via fantasy, so I am not sure if we are meant to believe this is how it all happened, or if this is just how Marina has processed everything she has learnt, which makes the storytelling a little vague.
Hélène Louvart's beautiful cinematography is another highlight of “Romería” as she makes great use of the sea and it's surrounding beach locations thanks to the natural sunlight of the area. There is a warmth or glow in the way show follows Marina with her camera that is instrumental in the audience falling in love with her and caring for her plight. As the film is predominately through Marina's eyes, Louvart shoots the surrounding landscape with a sense of awe and wonder, more like a tourist new to the area, rather than someone who has lived there their whole lives and now takes the beauty of the place for granted. Due to the nature of the story, and with Marina being a budding filmmaker, there is a bit of video footage used in “Romería” and whilst I will never be a fan of the video aesthetic, I understood its inclusion and importance to the story, so had less of a problem with it than I normally do.
Overall, I thought “Romería” was another successful film from Carla Simón about family and the secrets sometimes hidden under the surface. It goes to a much darker place than her two previous films but still feels as real as them both. The film has been anchored by a stunning debut performance from lead actor Llúcia Garcia (who plays two roles in the film) and has been expertly lensed from the always dependable Hélène Louvart. Whilst Simón makes a slight misstep in the third act by including a scene of magical realism that does not work within the whole of the film, I still thoroughly enjoyed “Romería” and am very surprised that it has not garnered more attention for the great and subtle film it is.
3.5 Stars.
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