Aftersun

Catherine Wells: Aftersun (GB 2022) with Frankie Corio (Sophie) and Paul Mescal (Calum), daughter and father on holiday in Turkey.

Aftersoon – päivämme auringossa / Swedish title: Aftersun.

My dictionary on aftersun: "Describing a cooling lotion applied to the skin after exposure to the sun."

Like Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (2010), Catherine Wells's Aftersun is a film about a 11-year-old daughter and her father's existential crisis, but the two films are completely different.

Aftersun is an experimental film. The fragile imagery of low tech home video footage conveys both raw immediacy and the transience of memory.

Aftersun is not story-driven. It captures a traumatic memory of the daughter's last holiday with her father. The destination: sunny Turkey.

11 years is an important age for such a rite of passage. Not too young, not too old to experience a voyage with father.

It is about the end of childhood.

It provides a memory of the greatest happiness and the greatest loss.

The performance of the young Frankie Corio is wonderful as the young teenager Sophie.