Romeria (12A)
Written and Directed by Carla Simons 
★★★★☆

THE sea plays a fundamental role in this story of a daughter’s quest to know her biological parents. Set around the Galician port of Vigo on the Atlantic, 18-year-old orphan Marina (Llucia Garcia) arrives from Barcelona. The plot builds on Marina’s basic need: a certificate showing her parentage so that she can gain the scholarship to take her place at film school.

As well as her video camera Marina carries her mother’s 1983 diary. She stays on a large yacht with her uncle and his young family, including handsome Nuno (rock musician Mitch Martin), meeting her grandparents and other relatives for the first time.

Romeria is structured in two parts. The first pieces together the dead parents’ love affair and break up, with Marina’s pregnant mother leaving for Barcelona. Hints of bad blood, literally, in the family, come from the mouths of children, rushing through the film like shoals of small fish. Shameful secrets are fixed within a peculiar, rigidly dominated bourgeois family. Gradually a tale of heroin addiction and Aids deaths emerges.

The second half lifts cleverly into dreamlike fantasy where the parents, also played by Garcia and Martin, are encountered living in utopian freedom, naked and beautiful in isolation. Against their childlike descent into rabid addiction the sea appears like a fathomless id. Earlier, Marina had noticed that the Atlantic smells different to the Mediterranean she knows. “This isn’t a pond,” her uncle warns her.

A graduate of the London Film School, Carla Simons has created a beautiful autobiographical fiction of a child’s loss and deeper discoveries of strength and self-determination.
FO’C
In cinemas May 8

Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition (15)
Directed by Malcom Venville
★★★★☆

 

“IT was always about the fans” says Iron Maiden in this riveting documentary which charts the iconic rise and fall and resurgence again of what is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal bands in music history. 

A cross section of staunch fans, ranging from doctors, former cops and financiers to Spanish actor Javier Bardem, Lars Ulrich from Metallica and Gene Simmons from KISS explain what Iron Maiden means to them and their global enduring appeal.  

Featuring exclusive interviews with band members, off camera, and with unprecedented access to the official archives the film, spanning five decades, offers a rare and intimate look at the band’s uncompromising vision and their extraordinary ties with their fans. 

This is an eye-opening film for those like me who know little to nothing about Iron Maiden, while for devoted followers it is an electrifying journey down memory lane and a celebration of their trailblazing legacy. 
MD 
In cinemas May 7

Remarkably Bright Creatures (PG-13)
Directed by Olivia Newman
★★★☆☆

 

A WIDOWED cleaning lady forms an unlikely bond with a Giant Pacific Octopus in this heartwarming drama about grief, loneliness, and the healing power of friendships. 

Based on Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, co-writer director Olivia Newman manages to capture the spirit of the book in this gentle and touching slow burner. It follows Tova (Sally Field), who works the night shift at the local aquarium and who befriends a young drifter (Lewis Pullman) who is searching for his estranged father.

While showing him the ropes she introduces him to Marcellus (voiced by a magical Alfred Molina), a grumpy and sarcastic octopus who is hellbent on escaping his prison as his death nears. They are all struggling with loss — in Tova’s case her dead husband and her missing son. 

With quietly powerful and captivating performances by Field and Pullman you cannot help but be enchanted by this film, which ends on a surprising but satisfying note. 
MD
Available on Netflix May 8

The Sheep Detectives (PG)
Directed by Kyle Balda
★★★☆☆ 

 

EXCEEDINGLY charming and great fun, this ridiculous whodunnit from the director of Minions Kyle Balda is Hot Fuzz meets Babe. 

Based on Leonie Swann’s novel Three Bags Full this is set in a fictionalised rural community in the English countryside. It follows a group of sheep whose shepherd George (Hugh Jackman) reads them a murder mystery novel to them every night. When he suddenly turns up dead his flock led by Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Mopple (Chris O’Dowd) decide to find his killer. 

Featuring both a stellar live and a stellar voice cast which includes Emma Thompson and  Bryan Cranston, it is full of obvious yet very funny visual gags. The sheep’s interpretation of God is hilarious. 

Once you accept the American sounding sheep and the clichéd characters, such as the dim-witted local copper (Nicholas Braun from Succession), it proves an engaging and entertaining ride for all the family.
MD
In cinemas May 8