Carla Simón: ‘In Spain people use words like shame and blame. But my parents just had bad luck‘

The rising star of Spanish cinema discusses being orphaned at six, new feature Romería and why she always works with children Family reunions in European arthouse cinema are almost always unhappy events, on a scale of strife that ranges from simmering resentment (Louis Malle’s Milou in May) to spectacular score-settling (Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen). There are still splatters of bad blood on the Sunday best in the films of Carla Simón, but the Spanish director has a rare gift: she makes you l...

By Philip Oltermann