Cinema: Hidden family ties in Spain
Seeking truth: Mitch Martín (l), Llúcia Garcia (r)
Although Romería is fictional, the diary is drawn from letters written by the director’s mother, Neus Pipó Simón, who died when she was six.
A new feature by Spanish writer-director Carla Simón, who has explored her own family history in previous films, shows how the quest to discover and understand parents one barely or never knew is a matter of sightings and fleeting glimpses, any tangible sense of their physical presence remaining always out of reach, but also a pursuit that churns up powerful feelings. The director’s wonderful feel for light and seascape encapsulates this perception in a magical final shot of leaping dolphins that are seen and then not seen.
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