ROMERIA

Synopsis

Marina, 18, orphaned at a young age, must travel to Spain’s Atlantic coast to obtain a signature for a scholarship application from the paternal grandparents she has never met. She navigates a sea of new aunts, uncles, and cousins, uncertain whether she will be embraced or met with resistance. Stirring long-buried emotions, reviving tenderness, and uncovering unspoken wounds tied to the past, Marina pieces together the fragmented and often contradictory memories of the parents she barely remembers.

Statement of the director

I am fortunate to be part of a large family full of stories, which has become my main source of inspiration. Family relationships fascinate me because we don't choose them. My father died when I was three, and my mother when I was six, both of AIDS. The last time I saw my father's family was at my mother's funeral, after which we lost contact. When I was about to go to university, I needed my parents' death certificates, so I contacted my grandparents. A few hours later, one of my uncles contacted me to invite me to visit them. Curiosity and the desire to know my origins overcame the resentment of years of silence. At the age of 18, I travelled to meet my father's family and uncover the story of my parents. My parents were young during Spain's democratic transition in the 1980s, a time of freedom and experimentation, when young people broke with the inherited values of a deeply Catholic and conservative society. However, this long-awaited period of freedom, known as "La Movida", also brought with it a heroin crisis, which made Spain the country with the highest rate of AIDS-related deaths in Europe. These stories, however, have often been silenced. ROMERÍA is a film about memory – the elusive family moments that we may never fully understand. I tried to reconstruct my parents' story through the memories of my family and those who knew them, but failed. The inherently fragmented nature of memory plays a role, but the main obstacle is the stigma surrounding AIDS, which clouds these memories. This story aims to recover the legacy of a forgotten generation that endured the dual consequences of heroin addiction and the emergence of a new virus. A part of Spanish historical memory that deserves to be revisited. Frustrated by the impossibility of uncovering the complete history of my parents, I dedicated myself to creating the memory I was missing. Can we create our own memory when it does not exist? I believe we can – and must – establish a healthier relationship with the past and shape our identity. Fortunately, I have cinema.

Review

Screen International Review