After sun ★★★½
DRAMA (2022)
Directed by: Charlotte Wells
InterpretationsCast: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio

“In Turkish, hasret means: a combination of nostalgia, love and loss. The word fits perfectly with the spirit of the film.”

One of the biggest surprises of the year in British independent cinema is Charlotte Wells’ feature film debut, which was celebrated at Cannes and at the recent BIFA Awards. The protagonists here are Callum and Sophie, a young divorced father with an 11-year-old daughter, who spend a few carefree vacation days at a resort in Turkey. Years later, a grown-up Sophie remains in the memories of this momentous trip, trying to understand (?) more about her mysterious father.

Welles prefers dots to ready-made (cinematic) food, and she justifies herself with a film that confirms some of the viewer’s initial suspicions, disproves others, and some just remains hanging in a grim atmosphere that fits the rounded gloves of time. memories. What we mostly see here is the sweet love relationship between father and daughter as we see it unfold in a sunny Mediterranean landscape; a little girl who is about to enter the difficult stage of adolescence, and a loving father who is mistaken by many for her brother.

However, we soon realize that there are also clouds. Despite his cheerful demeanor towards the little girl, Calum has his own demons that haunt him, which his daughter seems to be aware of as well. But what she remembers is like fragments, like faltering images of a crazy dance, interspersed again and again in the narrative.

“Memory is a slippery slope. The memory of a particular moment in time and how that moment made you feel then is defined by a new feeling: a sense of how that moment makes you feel now. In Turkish, “hasret” means a combination of nostalgia, love and loss. It seems that this word is the best fit for the spirit of this film, ”the director notes.

In general, this impressionistic look dominates here, in an overall bittersweet film that evokes emotions well and does not bulge them with its development. In this very important role, of course, both main characters play: the unlikely kid Frankie Corio, and even more so our acquaintance from the television series Normal People, Paul Mescal, who interprets Calum with emphasized severity.