Just a few days ago, the Spanish Film Academy confirmed that three previously selected films to participate in the Oscar of 2026 are awards. PilgrimageKarl Simon; Siratfrom Oliver Lax; And SrydEva Libertad. It was the first one who had just arrived in cinemas with an impulse to be one of those finalists. To find out whether he manages to be the last chosen, you still need to wait a couple of weeks, but now he has already managed to become one of the most important and important Spanish films of the year.
In fact, this prestigious status for Pilgrimage It was expected. And that Karl SimonOnly with two films earlier, he has already become one of the directors who are considering Spain. Made their debut with Summer 1993With whom he was consecrated in the 2018 Goya Awards with 8 nominations and three figurines, including the best novel. With your second film, AlcarràsIt went on. He won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, one of the most important in the world, in addition to 11 nominations at the Goya 2023 award.
Now, having passed through the Cannes Film Festival (the most prestigious on the planet), it reaches cinemas PilgrimageThe third film Karl SimonWith whom the director is completing a kind of autobiographical trilogy. The tape follows Marine CorpsA young woman of 18 years old, adopted from a very early age who has been going to Vigo to meet for the first time with the family of her biological father. His arrival returns the past, already buried. Under the guidance of his mother’s diary and a special connection with his new cousin, Marine Corps You will find family wounds, and you can finally survive the fragmented memory of the parents of those who barely have memories.
At the moment Pilgrimage From the side of professional criticism was sensational. In fact, it is postulated as a great alternative Sirat from Oliver Lax Be a representative of Spanish at the Oscar 2026. Despite all this, in hypertextual form, we were able to talk with Karl Simon About the tape, as well as about the situation of the current Spanish cinema.
PilgrimageA very personal story
Included with pilgrimage, a kind of very intimate tripty, but also a very healer. What is a movie for you?
For me, cinema is a way to be in a world that makes things observe in a specific way. I think that there are things that I see in life that I would not see if I had not made films. He holds me very on his guard and looks at beautiful things, as well as those that are not so. In gestures, in relationships … observation, first of all.
With your films you get a very intimate and very personal experience, becoming collective experience. How do you achieve this?
Everything is in some way political. We live in society and in context. Thus, despite the fact that they tell very intimate stories, and this is largely connected with my family, they always accompany their context, which forces people when they see them can identify themselves. In the end, we all have a family, and we look a lot. There are scenes from families that are repeated in different houses.
PilgrimageOn the one hand, this is born from the disappointment that I felt – or what I still feel, but I managed to heal a little – about my inability to understand the love story of my parents. But I think that, first of all, the engine of desire to make this film related to the fact that it appreciates the fact that the generation of the 80s to which they belonged, in which many people died for heroin, AIDS, and we forgot so many times a little.
This love story comes in the last act Pilgrimage Like a film in the film. Was it a core, the origin of the tape? Or is it what arises more from the spelling and development of the argument?
It was very clear to me about this film. He wanted to use the letters that my mother wrote at that time to his family and her friends, and turn them into this newspaper. One way or another, she wanted to participate in the film. At first I was not sure how I was going to use them. They were going to leave at different times, in the voices … And the time came when I realized that I actually made a film about memory and inability to match the works through the stories of others. And as the memory is very selective, very subjective, and how we should afford to invent it when we do not have the opportunity to live in peace with our past.
It was the one where this option is used for this, for this imaginary part, for this more magical and fantastic part. It was very natural to build a story similar to this. You almost feel that when the film is going to finish another. I always thought it was a little risky, I did not know if people would continue in this. But I think it works more or less.
What is the next film by Karl Simon?
As a screenwriter, you involve only in history, and until you get it, you do not do this or do you have somewhat at the same time in development? And if this is so, that you must have a story so that you decide to go with it and turn it into a film?
I am a lot of one at a time. Since I like to carefully explore things, and I need time, I cannot be with my head in four different films. But it is true that for me there is a very important thing, which is that, although I shoot the film, I need to have my own “mental time in the courtyard”. Fantasize with other things. I like that. Because sometimes [escribir una historia] It is something so intense, and you are always focused on the same thing, sometimes imagining how the following will be, and I have a good time. This is almost like a game. I do this, but in general, when I am focused on one thing, these are years of work, this is one.
And now, when you have completed this triptych, what? What do you want to do?
We are preparing a musical flamenco, which has nothing to do with everything that I have done now. But it is true that the family problem will always accompany me, because I feel that they are a very difficult relationship. And very cinematography precisely because he has a lot of history. Watching very little, you understand that there are many things behind. For me, this is almost like a game that I offer with the viewer, and that I really like it.
Do you write characters thinking about a specific actor or actress, or are you looking for them later? And if so, then in the ideal future, with whom would you like to work?
At the moment, I always wrote characters, and then I was looking for actors. And I always looked for actors who are very similar to written characters, which makes my castings for a very long time. I think that the only time I thought: “I want this person to be in the film,” Angel Molina [en el cortometraje Carta a mi madre para mi hijo]The field there I wrote a little around it with a short Alcarràs And PilgrimageThe field is really that he knew me a little, that is, I hope to work with Angel Molina At some point.
Spanish cinema and referents Karl Simon
How do you see the Spanish cinema today? When is the industry?
I was very lucky to live at this moment of Spanish cinema, because I feel that in the new generation there is something just as collective. We know each other, we help each other, we read scripts, we see abbreviations … and, of course, we also influence each other. This is a pretty sweet moment, because there are very different voices that examine in different directions. This is what makes the cinematography of a rich country. And, in addition, at the international level he also looks here and what we do, what is happening not so long ago. Our films travel, and I think it is very important.
What are the links to Karl Simon when creating films?
I will tell you different things. I think that someone, who is surprisingly portraying the family and the fact that I feel very identical with their films, Arnaud DishinThe field is what Christmas story It always accompanies me. All Italian neorealism was very influential, especially in the tone of my films and in a certain spirit. Then there is a movie Lucretia Martel And these dialogs. For me, this is a genius, and I analyzed a lot how I build them.
This Alice Rorvacher With the light that has its own cinema, which inspires me very much. Claire Denis She is a director who also checked a lot how her characters are films, I think there is something very beautiful there. Agnes VardaThis is for me God in the sense that He is one who never loses this spirit of the search and research in his films. And at the Spanish level, to Victor Erisa I always wear it very close with your films about childhood. I think this is one who really knows how to use the poetry of cinema. AND Carlos Saura Also. There are many films Carlos Saura I think they are in these three films that I shot. I think now PilgrimageFine Quickly, quicklyFor example. OR The breed is a raven V Summer 1993Field
Source: Hiper Textual
