The literature of the self is almost as old as the modern novel. Its appearance is usually placed in the mid-eighteenth century with the amusing The Life and Opinions of the Gentleman Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. In the 20th century, the autobiographical genre became popular and the so-called autofiction was born, cultivated by, among many others, Philip Roth, Annie Ernaux, Javier Cercas and Enrique Vila-Matas.
In the cinema, as heir to the literary narrative, many directors have left traces of their lives in their films. François Truffaut, Terence Davies, Woody Allen or Federico Fellini have explored this terrain. But it has been a young Barcelonan who has delved into the cinema of the self.
At just 30 years old, Carla Simón directed Summer 1993 (2017), where she tells how she adapted as a child to the death of her parents victims of AIDS and how she integrated into her new family.
With Alcarràs (2022), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, Simón gave the genre a new twist by narrating a fictional family experience, but with non-professional actors, thus approaching the documentary. Simón returned to the world of me cinema this summer with the short film Letter to my mother for my son (2002), where he recovers the few memories he has left of his mother.
He only has two feature films behind him, but he has won the National Cinematography Award, an award that usually goes to professionals with a long career, but in Simón’s case it is a recognition of his capacity for innovation in cinematographic narrative.
