The Camino and Its People

4/29-5/02: La Rioja

On Tuesday, April 28th, we crossed from the province of Navarra into La Rioja. The changes between provinces were not immediately obvious at first as we walked along gentle, sloping roads, green trails and rolling hills. Then, suddenly, we found ourselves amidst a patchwork of red soil and vineyards, each plant getting ready to burst into leaf and fruit with the coming of spring. La Rioja, as many may know, is famous for its delicious red wines.

 

On route to Logroño, we began filming two pilgrims who were doing the Camino in their own way - Alain and Bernadette had traveled the route from their home in France via a horse-drawn carriage. A hunting accident several years earlier had left Bernadette with a limited capacity to walk, but had not dampened her enthusiasm for life nor her to desire to do the Camino. The logisitics of filming the horses - faster moving subject than most pilgrims - were a little more complicated, especially when having to catch up to the trotting hooves, or filming alongside them from the open sliding-door of the van without imposing on the horses. We were able to catch them when they’d stop to feed and water their horses, leaving them in the care of their wonderful family dog, Pepite, as they joined us for lunch.

We were welcomed generously by representatives of La Rioja, who treated us to several magnificent evenings in Logroño. On the night of the crew’s day off, Andrés Fernández of the Calle Laurel and Sandra Sánchez Lerín of La Rioja Turismo guided us through a tour of the rich chocolate, savory tapas and unique wines of the Calle Laurel, as well as a delicious full course dinner at the restaurant, San Lorenzo. We were even able to treat some of those who were slowing becoming known as “our pilgrims,” such as Tomás - A young Portuguese business entrepreneur - and his hilarious Spanish friends, Javier and Juan Carlos. These grand occasions were always a stark contrast to life on the Camino with its minimal comforts and luxuries.

Our Camino seemed to be this bewildering whirlwind of both extravagance and simplicity, of professional commitments and personal instincts, of planning and serendipity. In such an unexpected instance, Fernando was stopped on the street by Eduardo, a local resident of who invited him (along with his crew of thirteen!) to attend a dinner at the Gastronomical Society in Logroño. Similar organizations exist throughout the region as a type of private-membership club, and consist exclusively of men. This particular group produces large dinners in an enormous kitchen and dining hall, equipped to feed pilgrims regularly. They took our crew in as they would pilgrims or family, and asked for nothing in return but the pleasure of sharing a vats of delicious white asparagus soup and giant shrimp floating in a tomato sauce that defied description.

 

 

 

We passed through many picturesque hamlets along this stretch of the Camino, some made of just a few houses and an Albergue. In the village of Nájera, we met up again with Misa, this time with a young Canadian man named William, whom she found shared her by now notorious steadfast pace. As everyone hones their own particular way of doing the Camino, the same is true for William. He had brought only a toothbrush, a still-photo camera, a couple of books, and the clothes on his back - no towel, no extra underwear and socks, no rain gear, no sleeping bag, nothing he deemed unessential. 

One major stop was Santo Domingo de La Calzada, where the A Crew caught our pilgrim Annie receiving directions to the Red Cross from the local police. The two officers decided to give her and Lydia a ride in their police vehicle, with the crew’s van bringing up the rear of the comical caravan. The B Crew had come into town just in time to join a festival day marking the nine-hundredth anniversary of the miracle of Santo Domingo. After hearing several versions, they pieced together that nine centuries ago, a German family and their handsome son were walking the Camino and stopped in town for the night. The daughter of the King fell in love with him, but he was devoted to his pilgrimage and thus refused her. Out of heartbreak, she planted a stolen item on him and told her father, who promptly ordered his beheading. His parents pled to Santo Domingo, who agreed to offer their son protection. Sometime later, his parents saw their son along the Camino, who was rumored to have had his death sentence carried out already, and informed the King of this during a feast. Perturbed, the King exclaimed, “Your son is no more alive than the chicken on my dinner plate!” He lifted the cover from his plate, and out jumped the chicken fully alive and well. After our morning of speeches and music, everyone crowded into the Cathedral of Santo Domingo for a formal Catholic service in honor of the Saint, where this story was echoed by the constant crowing of a very real and very live chicken perched in a cage high above the pews.

 

 

As we neared the edge of La Rioja, our two crews started trying a new, intimate mode of filming the Camino. While the entire crew had been staying together in hotels and Albergues, we hadn’t yet documented our pilgrims’ experiences overnight. So with just a camera and a microphone, our Directors, DPs, and Sound Recordists of each crew would walk with the pilgrim(s) to their Albergue and stay the night. The B Crew spent the night in Viloria de La Rioja, at the cozy Refugio Acacio y Orietta. And after spending their night in the Albergue of Grañon, the A Crew found itself engulfed in a morning procession of the Virgin from a outside of town to the Church at its center. Dodging in and out of the crowd was a young French family we had met in Huarte, before production had even begun - Tatiana, her younger brother Alexis, and her four-year-old son Syrian. All of the townspeople were dressed in their best, enjoying the fireworks, dancing, and the ceremonious transport of their religious relics through the ancient, cobbled streets. Our experience in each place was this incredible blend of people and dialects, with the locals allowing us and the pilgrims such precious access to their communities’ traditions and events.

 

 

 

Having only been filming the Camino for two weeks, we were amazed at its incredibly perceptible influence on the crew and its dynamic. Sally had to return to the United States for several weeks, Marcelo switched back and forth between crews, but just before the Meseta, we experienced some major reorganization. In Logroño, Guglielmo transitioned from working a member of the A Crew to walking the Camino as a pilgrim as he had done the year before. David, after deciding to leave the production, also began walking the Camino before returning to his home in Madrid, and Josh gladly and ably stepped up into the role of Cinematographer on the B Crew. Then, Mani left the B Crew a week earlier than originally planned to prepare for her daughter’s wedding. And finally, each crew prepared itself for the upcoming addition of two new, highly experienced Producers.

It was almost as though the kind of reckoning with oneself or the letting go of those things that don’t fit your path – the process about which people like Francisco had spoken about – was happening organically within the crews. So, as we continued on beyond the vineyards and snowy mountain peaks, we all trusted that the transformations that the film was undergoing were an essential part of its making. At once humbled and encouraged, we realized that although we were not “doing the Camino” traditionally by any stretch of the imagination, we were not separate from it and its power to change all those who partake in it.

 

 

 

 

 

Original copy by KC Englander & Mani Feniger.