Director: Carla Simón

Stars: Llúcia Garcia, Mitch Martín, Tristán Ulloa, Celine Tyll, León Romagosa, Hans Romagosa, Miryam Gallego, Alberto Gracia

A young woman exhumes her uncomfortable family history in Spanish writer-director Carla Simon’s engaging semi-autobiographical drama. The year is 2004 and eighteen-year-old Marina Piñeiro (Garcia) travels from Barcelona to Vigo, a city on the Spanish coast, to find information about her biological father who had died of AIDS, so she can complete the paperwork for a scholarship to study film. Her biological mother is also dead. Marina lodges with her Uncle Lois (Ulloa) on his houseboat, along with Lois’s wife Denise (Tyll) and amiable sons Nuno (Martin), Basilio & Eugene (Leon and Hans Romagosa). Later she meets Aunt Olalla (Gallego), who makes her a dress, and her Uncle Iago with whom Marina forms a bond. Everyone remarks that Marina bears a striking resemblance to her mother, whose journal is heard in voiceover. As her stay goes on, it becomes evident that Marina’s understanding of her parents’ history differs from that of her relatives. The title of the film means ‘pilgrimage’, and thematically the picture is similar to Simón’s charming debut ‘Summer 1993’, with its tale of an orphaned girl reconnecting with her extended family. The pacing is languid but elevated by newcomer Garcia’s winningly unaffected presence. Marina’s girlish flirtation with her cousin Nuno is sweet, but she can hold her own too, evidenced in a later scene with her standoffish grandparents. The bold, magical final act, in which Simón and cinematographer Hélène Louvart switch from a naturalistic style to something more abstract, to fill in Marina’s family history, is very touching.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Bluesky @davidwilloughby.bsky.social