Time to shine

A powerful first film about a divorced dad holidaying with his young daughter is touching audiences all over the world.

- RUSSELL BAILLIE

It might have started out as a small, personal, first film about a dad and a daughter on a summer holiday, but Aftersun became the movie that never dipped below the horizon.

The reviews have continued to glow the Guardian named it the best film of 2022 since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, out of the main spotlight in the critics’ week sidebar.

Last week, the film’s Scottish writer-director, Charlotte Wells, added the Directors’ Guild of America DGA) and Bafta awards for best debut to an already cluttered trophy cabinet.

Paul Mescal is up for a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Calum, the young divorced father taking his 11-year-old daughter, Sophie Frankie Corio), on a budget holiday to Turkey in the late 1990s.

“It was just a moment of pure joy and excitement,” Wells says of her leading man’s surprise Academy Award nod, while speaking to the Listener a few days before the DGA and Bafta ceremonies.

But the film isn't just a British arthouse critical darling. It’s an affecting look at the workings of memory, depression, loss and parental love, delivered with both warmth and quiet dread.

"Somebody in Paris last week told me they had locked away at your desk, and it's just you and the words on the page.

"It's been really wonderful to see the film connect with so many people in so many different parts of the world so far beyond a niche audience of Brits who have been on package holidays to the Mediterranean in the late 90s."

"Somebody told me they had re-established their relationship with their dad, having seen the film."