"Romería"

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Film still from "Romería" directed by Carla Simón (Spain, Germany 2025).

Adopted by her maternal family in Catalunya at a very young age after both of her parents died of AIDS, 18-year-old Marina travels to Vigo to meet her biological father's family for the first time. Guided by her mother's diary, Marina will uncover family wounds and relive the fragmented story of parents she barely remembers.Through encounters with her aunts, uncles, and grandparents, Marina tries to piece together a coherent narrative of her father and the love story he shared with her mother, but she can't because her father's family is too ashamed of the couple's past drug problems, something Marina's presence serves as a constant reminder.

Drawing on her own life, director Carla Simón helps to create a contextualized narrative of an era that is underrepresented in the Spanish collective imagination, exposing taboos of 1980s Spain.

Gender and class are the two central axes that articulate the themes of recognition, shame, and guilt in the film. They compose a story that works to demystify the 1980s and de-stigmatize those who died from heroin addiction and AIDS. As the historian Pablo García Varela wrote, "the trauma of the heroin crisis has been etched into the memory of Spanish society, but surprisingly, it has been a subject little addressed by historians in our country."

Simón's film dares to look at a past marked by stigma and silence with the delicacy of intimacy and the conviction that cinema can also become a space for redress.

Film will be screened in original version (Catalan, Gallego and Spanish).

A film in the 2026 edition of the Brain Film Fest.

Spring Film Festivals in Barcelona

Barcelona boasts a wide variety of renowned film festivals each spring, and this year promises to be another spectacular edition. Check out our article Spring Film Festivals in Barcelona where you'll discover festivals dedicated to fashion docs, films inspired by literature and history, astounding cinematic works that delve into the creativity, mystery and resilience of the human brain and films that explore the LGBTIQ+ experience.

For more events check our online events calendar.