Aftersun

‘I think it’s nice we share the same sky’

‘Aftersun’ is a beautiful film from director Charlotte Wells, the film’s nostalgic tone is immediately set with Sophie as an adult looking through the home videos she filmed with her dad as she reminisces on their final holiday together. The film continues showing both their home videos combined with the moments Sophie remembers to piece together the events from the time they shared. Whilst her memories mostly consist of happy moments, I felt a pit in my stomach the whole time, knowing that there are darker undertones to this holiday – Wells managed to create the same feelings Sophie is having rewatching the footage for the audience.

One of the consistent moments throughout the film is the moment when it cuts to a dark room with strobe lighting, you see small fragments of Callum dancing in the room with adult Sophie looking on. This perfectly reflects the small pieces of memories she is putting together with the videos to remember the holiday but also how her memories with her father fade as time goes on. These moments tie in perfectly with one of the final scenes – the last dance. ‘Under Pressure’ plays and Callum states he loves dancing and joins in and eventually Sophie joins in, this is a very bittersweet moment as it’s one of their final happy moments together. The song was a perfect choice for this moment as the lyrics both reflect their stories and feelings and also the emotions you as the audience would feel during the film. It’s a perfect scene for this film and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to hear that song again without remembering that scene.

Wells perfectly described the film in her note with A24 saying ‘Memory is a slippery thing; details are hazy, fickle. The more you strain, the less you see. A memory of a memory endlessly corrupting itself.’ The film is a perfect exploration of memories and I’ve never seen a film that has reflected that so well. Although the memories and fading and have these sad undertones for Sophie she will still remember the love her dad had for her and that is beautiful.

Overall Aftersun is an absolutely devastating but beautiful film which explores memories, love and depression so perfectly. It deserves the recognition it has got and more and I am very excited to see what will come next from Wells.