From 29 January to 8 February, the 55th edition of the IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam), the largest film festival in the Netherlands, will take place. To get an idea of all the wonderful things that await you, you can already see one of the highlights in the IFFR Preview: the beautiful, very personal Romería by Carla Simón.
Romería
At a young age, Marina lost her parents to addiction and illness. Now that she is 18, she travels to Vigo, a sunny city on the Atlantic coast of Spain, armed with a camcorder. There she will finally meet her father's family, if only because she needs one of them to sign a scholarship application. And indeed, she gets to know a whole procession of uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents. They are all equally warm and hospitable, but also irritable and evasive. This does not make it any easier for Marina to form a picture of who her parents actually were. She tries to fit conflicting memories and sometimes very painful new information together like pieces of a puzzle, but they hardly fit.
In Romería (pilgrimage), director Carla Simón tells a very personal, strongly autobiographical story about how difficult it is to really know your parents. In addition to debutante Llúcia Garcia, the beautiful Galician coast also plays a leading role.
