Marina (Llúcia Garcia), an orphan from a young age, has just turned 18 and intends to pursue a university scholarship in Barcelona. The application, however, requires the signatures of her paternal grandparents, which means that she must travel to Spain’s Atlantic coast and seek out the family she has never met. With her mother’s old diary as her only guide, Marina returns to her parents’ hometown of Vigo, where she finds herself caught in a confusing swirl of new experiences, buried emotions, and fragmented memories.
Following her Golden Bear–winning Alcarràs (VIFF 2022), Spanish auteur Carla Simón returns to the semi-autobiographical roots of Summer 1993 (VIFF 17) with this imaginative film about the vicissitudes of time and memory. Titled after the Spanish word for pilgrimage, Romería renders Marina’s coming-of-age journey through a sensuous array of textures and modes, interweaving scenes of family drama with a lo-fi video diary and flights into the fantastic. It’s a film that lies suspended between the mystery of what was and visions of what might have been.
Llúcia Garcia, Mitch, Tristán Ulloa, Alberto Gracia, Miryam Gallego, Janet Novás
Spain/Germany
2025
In Spanish, Catalan, French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
María Zamora
Screenwriter
Carla Simón
Cinematography
Hélène Louvart
Editor
Sergio Jiménez, Ana Pfaff
Production Design
Mónica Bernuy
Original Music
Ernest Pipó
Carla Simón
Carla Simón, born 1986, is a screenwriter and film director who grew up in a small Catalan village. Her autobiographical debut Verano 1993 (2017) won the Best First Film Award and Generation Kplus Grand Prix at Berlinale, as well as three Goya Awards, including Best New Director. The film represented Spain at the 2018 Oscars, earned a Discovery nomination at the European Film Awards, and earned Simón the Kering emerging Women in Motion award at Cannes. Her second feature film, Alcarràs (2022), won the coveted Golden Bear at the Berlinale and was selected for more than 90 international film festivals.
Filmography: Summer 1993 (2017); Alcarràs (2022)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Secret in Their Eyes
This month's Talking Pictures screening is a multi-layered, poignant thriller interweaving the personal lives of a prosecution investigator (Ricardo Darin) and a judge, with a manhunt spanning twenty-five years. Stay for cookies, coffee and a chat after!
American Doctor
One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.
