Aftersun

Aftersun is a 2022 coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Charlotte Wells in her feature directorial debut. Starring Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, and Celia Rowlson-Hall, the film follows an 11-year-old Scottish girl on holiday with her father at a Turkish resort on the eve of his 31st birthday. Aftersun had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2022, where Wells was nominated for the Golden Camera. It was theatrically released in the United States on 21 October 2022, and in the United Kingdom on 18 November 2022. The film received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised Wells' direction and screenplay, and the performances of Corio and Mescal. It received four nominations at the 76th BAFTA awards, where Wells won for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Mescal was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 95th Academy Awards. Aftersun was named one of the best films of 2022 by the National Board of Review and was awarded top place by Sight and Sound on its poll for the best films of 2022. Plot Eleven-year-old Sophie from Edinburgh takes a summer holiday to Turkey with her loving 30-year-old father Calum, who moved to London after having amicably separated from Sophie's mother. Sophie records the holiday on a MiniDV camera, the footage of which is interspersed throughout the film. Over the course of the holiday, Sophie befriends and observes older British teenagers at the Turkish resort, who engage in and discuss sexual and romantic activity. She also meets with and plays arcade games with a boy of her age named Michael. Calum is dealing with occupational and financial struggles and exhibits signs of depression and detachment, which he tries to hide from his daughter, keeping up a façade of contentment during the holiday. During his time alone on the holiday, he is seen engaging in Tai chi patterns and reading self-help books; he is also shown smoking, a fact he hides from Sophie. Despite the young Sophie's observant nature, she is oblivious to the signs of her father's depression. One day, they go scuba diving and she loses her expensive scuba mask to the sea. Calum feigns nonchalance, but Sophie can sense that her father is upset by her mistake and expresses that she understood the mask was expensive and comforts her father. Calum then confesses to the diving instructor next to them that he's surprised that he made it to the age of 30, and is not expecting to make it to 40.