A tender, memory-soaked family mystery that turns a practical errand into an emotional excavation. It should strongly appeal to viewers who like intimate dramas, generational secrets, and quietly devastating coming-of-age storytelling.
58% ★★★☆☆ (43,703)
Romería
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama
2025 · 1h 52m · ★ 58% (43.7K)
Director: Carla Simón
Starring: Llúcia Garcia, Mitch, Tristán Ulloa
Overview
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.
Director
Carla Simón
Production
Elastica Films, Romería Vigo, ZDF/Arte, Dos Soles Media, Ventall Cinema
Cast
Llúcia Garcia, Mitch, Tristán Ulloa, Celine Tyll, León Romagosa, Hans Romagosa, Marina Troncoso, José Ángel Egido, Miryam Gallego, Sara Casasnovas, Toño Casais, Lia Mora, Helena González, Gala Rodríguez, Antón Lemos, Laura Nuñez, Alberto Gracia, Janet Novás
Curator Review
Verdict
A tender, memory-soaked family mystery that turns a practical errand into an emotional excavation. It should strongly appeal to viewers who like intimate dramas, generational secrets, and quietly devastating coming-of-age storytelling.
Best for
fans of lyrical family dramas
viewers drawn to memory, identity, and inheritance
audiences who like restrained, observational filmmaking
people who respond to emotional realism with occasional dreamlike touches
Skip if
you want a fast-moving plot with clear twists
you prefer broad, high-drama melodrama
you dislike elliptical storytelling and long silences
you need a story that stays strictly procedural
Overview
Romería is built from small discoveries that land like emotional detonations. What begins as a bureaucratic search for documents becomes a search for origin, belonging, and the truth that families often bury under politeness, shame, and omission. The film’s power comes from how carefully it listens to absence: what is not said, what is half-remembered, and what can only be felt through place and gesture.
Worth noting
Carla Simón continues to work in a register of luminous realism, where memory feels tactile and the landscape carries emotional residue. The Atlantic coast setting gives the story a salt-air melancholy, but the film is not simply sad; it is also curious, tender, and alive to the awkwardness of meeting your own history too late. The dreamier passages and quiet observations deepen rather than distract from the human drama.
Bottom line
This is a film for viewers who appreciate emotional precision over plot mechanics. It may feel slight to those expecting bigger revelations or more overt conflict, but its restraint is part of the design. By the end, Romería has the rare feeling of a family secret not just uncovered, but understood.
Top Letterboxd reviews
dani. (3.5★) · 1315 likes
Todo este circo por una beca en la escac
Luis Chinaski (4★) · 849 likes
El guión está lleno de silencios, negación y violencia simbólica. O lo que es lo mismo, de familia tradicional
Karsten (4★) · 679 likes
really truly think carla is one of the best doing it these days, every time i watch one of her films i float a little. makes sense why some of the dreamier elements of this work so naturally. gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous
cinema excelsior (4.5★) · 488 likes
le dije a Carla Simón que mi santísima trinidad de películas sobre la memoria y el recuerdo eran Aftersun, La chimera y ahora también Romería, y me dijo "ay qué bien, gracias". luego siguió explicando como lo bonito de estas películas es que hablan de la memoria desde la luz, y no sé, es que lleva razón. no he parado de llorar volviéndola a ver, y aun así estoy tan feliz por Marina y por Carla. que bonito es el cine a través de sus ojos.
theododo (3★) · 456 likes
Receiving money and empathy after saying that you are a movie student is pretty accurate
2017 · Drama · 1h 38m · Where to watch: OVID, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Fawesome, myfilmfriend, Plex
A deeply personal child’s-eye drama about grief, family, and the aftershocks of loss, with the same intimate emotional intelligence.