Aftersun

Just two people on holiday, having fun in the sun
dir: Charlotte Wells
2022
Aftersun is…
On a nuts and bolts level, it’s a flick about a father and a daughter going on a budget package holiday in Turkey. It looks like it’s cobbled together, in sections, from home movies and polaroid photo moments; moments frozen in time. We’re watching it now, obviously, as it’s “happening”, but I think you’re meant to be thinking of flicking through a photo album from a long while ago, and realising, from details you hadn’t picked up, or from someone or something just outside of the frame, that how you assumed things were way back then might have been completely different.
And then we realise that we’re watching the adult version of the daughter looking back on that holiday and remembering / imagining what was really going on.
As far as I know, the title refers to the kind of lotion you put on to sooth sunburn afterwards, after sun exposure, after it’s, you know, too late. Damage is done. It’s not a preventative, it’s some kind of consolation. It probably makes no difference, now.
Sophie (Frankie Corio) and Calum (Paul Mescal) get along well enough, but there’s some awkwardness there. It could be from the fact that Calum is quite young to be her dad, seeing as he’s 30 and she’s 11. It means he became her dad when he was 18 – 19.
He’s also no longer with her mum, for whatever reason they’ve separated, but they’re lucky to spend this week together before she goes back to her regular life.
They hang out, they swim, they chat a bit, there are some odd moments when they interact with others, or when Sophie tries to film her dad with his fancy new camera, but otherwise there’s no major friction between them.
As far as Sophie knows. What she didn’t see back then is what she can see reviewing the trip as an adult, that things were very different than how she thought they were.
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