Real and imaginary memories are interspersed with the images to reconcile the father that film-maker Charlotte Wells knew with the man she didn’t know. Her directorial debut is worth watching for its “emotionally autobiographical” and meticulous visual design.
| Target audience: | General public |
| Age: | From age 18 |
| Location: | Deck |
| Duration: | 1 hour 45 minutes |
| Price: | 4€ |
Aftersun, by Charlotte Wells. United Kingdom, 2022. 102 min.
At a decaying holiday resort in the late 1990s, 11-year-old Sophie cherishes the little time she spends with her affectionate, idealistic father, Calum. As Sophie’s adolescence becomes ever more evident, Calum’s desire for a life beyond fatherhood increases. Twenty years later, the fond memories of that last holiday become a powerful and heart-wrenching portrait of their relationship as Sophie tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't know.
Charlotte Wells is a Scottish film-maker based in New York. She obtained a double MBA/MFA from NYU, where she wrote and directed three short films and produced many more. Wells was a fellow at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs in 2020 with her first feature film Aftersun, which premiered at the Cannes Semaine de la Critique in 2022 and won the Jury Award, the first of many subsequent accolades. Aftersun is her directorial debut and explores a different period in the relationship between a young father and his daughter from the one she explored in her first short film, Tuesday, in 2015.
Links of interest
Aftersun, by Charlotte Wells
