A gently absorbing delve into a family history, Laia Manresa Casals’ Casa Reynal will strike a chord with any viewer who has been drawn into looking into generational history with all of the subtle dramas and intrigues that impact on any family. It is not a film packed with revelations or great incidents, but it is an intimate and warm journey through time.
Following the death of the director’s grandmother Montserrat, her mother decides to sell Casa Reynal, the ancestral home, a townhouse located in Pla d’Urgell, a region of Catalonia. She and her family go there to close up the house, and while cleaning cupboards and packing boxes they come across traces of the family past.
It is the beginning of spring and the swallows, who have been nesting in the courtyard for years, have just arrived. The film opens with the family staring out of a window and discussing the birds (animated swallows punctuate many of the exterior shots of the house and area) which reflect the migratory journey from the countryside to the city of the family.
The family talk to an estate agent to discuss both a price and the journey that the family has undertaken throughout the years they were linked to the house. Her mother goes through the deeds, which prompts director Laia Mamresa Casals to revisit archival video of an interview she did with her grandmother some years earlier, as well as photographs that detail her great-grandparents’ original journey from the countryside to Barcelona.
Casals’ grandfather worked for La Camerana in Barcelona, a transport company (run by the Bonet family) that originally used horses. He eventually became chauffeur, butler and assistant to the company head. The director’s grandparents were married in 1946 and her mother was born in 1948.
The family journey takes a darker turn when they discuss the death of her grandmother’s youngest son Jordi in a car crash when he was just eight. The family take a rather plaintive trip to try and find the exact spot where Jordi died, which exemplifies the complexities and sadness that often lurks within family histories.
This journey through time connects the intimate and private history of three generations, in equal part sad, warm-hearted, modest and insightful, and always all set against the country’s recent collective history – the Civil War and Franco feature as an austere backdrop to the story.
Casa Reynal is a traditional film both in tone and structure – archival footage and photographs blend with memories and material from the house as they prepare for its sale – but Casals’ loving immersion into her own family’s intimate story gives the film an additional sense of warmth, resonance and lyricism.
Spain, 2024, 90mins
Dir/scr: Laia Manresa Casals
Production: Films de l’Orient, Video Profilmar
Producers: Sandro Forin, Cristina Galvarriato
Cinematography: Lucia Venero, Carles Gusi
Editor: Sergu Dies
Music: Albert Pla, Judit Farres
