Romería

2025 1h 52m ES

👍

6.5

SOLID

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.8

IMDB

★6.5TMDB · 81●77Metacritic★6.8IMDB · 3,628

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

Criterion ChannelSubscription

Cast

Llúcia Garcia
Marina
Mitch
Nuno
Tristán Ulloa
Lois
Celine Tyll
Denise
León Romagosa
Basilio
Hans Romagosa
Eugene
Marina Troncoso
Grandmother
José Ángel Egido
Grandfather

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Carla Simón
Writers: Carla Simón, Eloy Calvo
Languages: Spanish, Catalan, French, Galician
Countries: Spain, Germany

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 56% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Spanish, Catalan, French, Galician.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Spain, Germany.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Carla Simón, shot by Hélène Louvart. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Ernest Pipó. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Sergio Jiménez shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Carla Simón directs. Hélène Louvart behind the camera. Ernest Pipó scores. Sergio Jiménez cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Spain, Germany. Dialogue in Spanish, Catalan, French, Galician.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 56% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
3Released last year.
4Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Spanish, Catalan, French, Galician.
5International production across 2 countries: Spain, Germany.
6Directed by Carla Simón, shot by Hélène Louvart. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Ernest Pipó. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Sergio Jiménez shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Llúcia Garcia and Mitch and Tristán Ulloa carry the top of the cast.
10IMDB entry: tt32538648 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Only 81 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
12Classified under 8 themes, including "scholarship", "heroin", "surrealism", "family drama".
13Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Hélène Louvart
Original score: Ernest Pipó
Editing: Sergio Jiménez
Costume design: Anna Aguilà
Makeup / hair: Paty López
VFX supervisor: Anna Aragonès
Sound: Alejandro Castillo
Runtime: 112 min · 1h 52m
Status: Released
Budget: $3,735,296
Box office: $2,081,503
Return: 56% of budget
Original language: ES
IMDB: Romería (2025)
Metacritic: 77/100
IMDB rating: 6.8/10 · 3,628 votes
MPAA: Unrated

Awards

2 wins & 36 nominations total

Also by

Carla Simón

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2026-07-09
★ 6/10
Family secrets can pose an irresistible temptation to those left out of the loop, yet those hidden matters often remain out of sight for a reason. However, when circumstances necessitate their revelation – especially for those on the outside looking in – those mysteries may be forced to emerge, regardless of how painful, awkward or shocking they may be. And those are the very conditions faced by an 18-year-old woman in the latest, and semi-autobiographical, feature from writer-director Carla Simón. Set in 2004, the film follows the odyssey of Marina (Llúcia Garcia), an adopted adolescent who makes a pilgrimage (hence the movie’s title) to the Atlantic Coast Spanish port of Vigo, where she was conceived by her now-long-deceased biological parents and the home of her blood relatives. Marina is about to enroll as a university film student and seeks to apply for a government grant to cover the funding. But, to complete the paperwork, she needs to provide proof of her parentage. Specifically, she needs to obtain a sworn attestation about the identity of her father (Mitch Martin), whose records at the time of his death indicated he had no children. That discrepancy, however, can be corrected with testimony from her grandfather (José Ángel Egido), whom she has never met. In fact, she has never met any of her relatives, which is another reason for the trip, an opportunity to help her discover her roots and, by extension she hopes, her own identity. She also hopes to learn more about her biological parents, since her late mother’s diary is the only tangible connection she has to them. Marina initially connects with her two genial uncles, Lois (Tristàn Ulloa) and Iago (Alberto Gracia), as well as a number of cousins, all of whom she universally makes positive connections with. However, over the course of her meetings with her estranged family, she slowly begins learning unflattering information about the character of her grandparents and disturbing revelations about her parents, disclosures more stunning than anything contained in her mother’s diary. Revelations about drug addiction, health issues, a freewheeling lifestyle and inadequate, indifferent familial support surface, giving Marina pause to consider the implications of what she learns (and may have ultimately been better off not knowing were it not for the need to obtain the attestation). While the film examines a number of touchy issues on multiple fronts, and undoubtedly provides a much-needed therapeutic outlet for the filmmaker, its disclosures nevertheless are a little too subtle and meandering, not coming across as powerfully or demonstrably as they probably could. Granted, prevailing conditions in the 1980s (where Marina’s life story begins) weren’t as accepting and tolerant as today (or even during the time frame in which the narrative here is set). But, considering the nature of the story and its messages, the picture feels underplayed, lacking the immediacy, urgency and indignation that it should invoke. In that regard, then, this offering feels underdeveloped. It also incorporates segments that don’t mesh especially well with the overall production, such as a protracted flashback re-creation of the romance between Marina’s parents based on her mother’s diary, much of which had already been revealed through conversations between the protagonist and her family members, making for a somewhat redundant exercise. The character of the flashback is also inexplicably surreal at times, a storytelling approach that may be visually interesting but seems out of place. As a consequence, “Romería” often feels like a lost opportunity, one in which the director may have been too close to the material to do it proper justice. This fact-based biography/domestic drama might have been beneficial to the personal well-being of the filmmaker, but, as a work of cinema, it comes up short, especially in shining a bright light on the sins of the past that must not be forgotten or allowed to occur again.

Production companies