Romeria: A Sun-Drenched Spanish Family Reunion Hides Dark Secrets and Shame

By Jim Slotek

Rating: A-

Films are often referred to as a “slow burn.” Romeria -  Carla Simón’s film about a young woman searching for the truth about her biological father’s death – can be called a “slow sunburn.”

It’s set in 2004 in the Spanish port city of Vigo, a sun-drenched stretch of Atlantic coast so preposterously beautiful, it’s hard to frame a shot without it looking like a Calvin Klein ad. The backdrop provides Simon’s semi-autobiographical film a stark contrast between life-giving light and dark family secrets surrounding death.

Sudden cousins Marina (Llúcia Garcia) and Nuno (Mitch Martin) have an instant rapport.

Romeria (a Spanish word referring to religious pilgrimage) introduces us to 18-year-old adoptee Marina (Llúcia Garcia), a prospective film student who hits a bureaucratic wall in her scholarship bid when it’s discovered her late biological father’s death certificate indicates he had no children. She’s assured, however, that a simple affidavit from the grandparents she’s never met will straighten things out.

So, it is that Marina heads to Vigo, to meet various cousins, aunts and uncles who spend much of their time in, on or near the glistening water. Among them: a same-age cousin, Nuno (Mitch Martin), with whom she develops an instant rapport.

Agreeable, well-behaved (turning down offers from her cousins of both liquor and pot), but persistent, Marina at first enjoys the raucous vitality of her new family. But gradually, she becomes frustrated by recollections about the lives of her father and mother (also deceased) that do not match. She also rightly suspects much is being withheld, despite the seemingly enthusiastic warmth directed her way. Her father’s family literally exchange side-eyes to her more uncomfortable questions.

Eventually, she learns enough to know that she must force the issue with the reluctant new relatives, who go as far as to nonchalantly offer money to give up her quest.

Simóns script continuously intertwines with readings from Marina’s mother’s diary. Eventually, this connection morphs via a light dusting of magical realism (there’s a cat involved) that brings the ‘80s bohemian lifestyle of her parents to life. There is sun, drugs, sex, cameraderie and partying, and, tragically, heroin addiction and AIDS - paradisiacal lives on a crash course.

The fever-dream third act even allows Marina to meet her parents as young adults in their ‘80s playground. In an interesting turn of casting, Simon has Garcia play her mother as well as herself. And Martin, who plays the cousin she finds intriguing, also plays her father Alfonso. This amplifies an incestuous touch to the cousins’ relationship that was clearly there even before the hallucinatory time-travel gave it a reason.

Many of the elements of the film apparently mirror actual events in Simón’s youth. She once traveled to Vigo in search of the facts behind her late parents’ fate, aided by her mothers’ letters home, and her discovery of a family she never knew.

This childhood trauma (she was six when her parents died) is a well Simón has gone to before. Her acclaimed 2017 film Summer 1993 (submitted as the Spanish entry to the Oscars) was about a young, recently orphaned child who learns to live with her aunt and uncle in rural Catalan. Interestingly, Marina in Romeria, when asked about her accent, says it is Catalan. It’s easy to see Romeria as a sort of subconscious sequel.

If there’s anything that doesn’t quite land in Romeria, it is occasionally the pace of discovery. The audience can put two and two together quite early from snippets of conversation and awkward admissions, seemingly before Marina does.

But this is trivial compared to the spark and charisma Garcia brings to her performance as Marina. She is believably charming and inquisitive in every turn of her quest, and the gradual hardening of her questioning is seamless.

And then, of course, there is the natural beauty that is the film’s backdrop, and, always, the sun-drenched ocean. Bring sunscreen.

Romeria. Written and directed by Carla Simón. Stars Llúcia Garcia, Mitch Martin, Alberto Gracia. Opens Friday, July 3 in theatres across Canada, including Toronto’s TIFF Lightbox.