Romería (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Director Carla Simón
Composed by Ernest
Pipó
Selection Cannes Festival
With
her mother’s diary in hand, Marina’s search for official documents for
university leads her to her biological family on the Atlantic coast. What
starts as an administrative quest reveals long-buried family secrets.
In 2004, Marina Piñeiro, an 18-year-old orphan, travels to Vigo for five days in search of information about her biological father, who died of AIDS and hoping to obtain a scholarship to study film. Upon arrival, Marina is welcomed by her uncle Lois, with whom she stays on his houseboat along with his wife Denise and their sons Nuno, Basilio, and Eugene.
During her stay, Marina asks about where her parents lived. Lois tells her that they resided in an apartment in Playa Samil, but Marina insists they lived in Toralla, a version later confirmed by her uncle Iago and Marina's mother's diary, which she carries with her on the trip. Throughout the days, the family constantly remarks on the striking physical resemblance between Marina and her mother.
Marina visits her aunt Olalla, who makes her a red dress in her boutique before going to the beach with her aunt Virxinia. As the rest of the family learns of her arrival, awkward situations arise, such as when some young cousins tell Marina that Olalla warned them not to touch her, claiming “she is sick because of her blood”. Meanwhile, Marina grows closer to Iago, a figure the family views with disappointment, as he reminds them of Marina's father. Tension rises during a visit to aunt Xulia's cabin, where Xulia reveals that Marina’s father died in 1992, contradicting the version Marina had believed for years, that he had died in 1987 when she was just a baby.
In a dream-like sequence, Marina is transported
back to 1983, when she arrives in Toralla and sees her parents on the rooftop
of the building where they lived together. Her mother's voice narrates her
story through fragments of her diary, written in Catalan, in which she is seen
with Marina's father traveling by boat, playing naked on the beach, attending
the Fiestas de Vigo, and consuming drugs. Their relationship ends abruptly in
1986 after they both run out of money and also suffer severe heroin withdrawal forcing
Marina's mother to leave Vigo while pregnant with her.
Back in the present, Marina reunites with the
grandparents to sign the documents proving she is her father's daughter so she
can obtain a scholarship to study film in Barcelona. At that moment, Marina is
told by her grandmother how she resembles her father as she watches her gazing
at the sea from a window. That afternoon, Marina sails on Lois's boat with him
and his family, where they encounter dolphins, which Marina films with the
video camera she used to document her entire trip to Vigo.
Comments
Post a Comment