Tues March 7 — 7 pm

1 hr 38 min
PG
Drama

Special Guests: Director, Lori Lozinski  and  NFB Producer, Teri Snelgrove

After Film Salon hosted by Peg Campbell with guests Lori Lozinski  and Teri Snelgrove

This effortlessly relaxed debut by Charlotte Wells is a subtle and complex investigation of post-divorce parenthood, with a brilliant performance by young Francesca Corio. This is the best film of the year by a first-time writer-director. Don’t expect sexual shocks or show-off effects. For Wells, the territory of the human heart is all she needs to keep us smiling, nodding in recognition and then fighting back tears. The empathy that Wells and her actors invest in these characters gives Aftersun the capability to sneak up and floor you. One thing is for sure: you won’t be able to get the film out of your head and heart.

The bulk of Aftersun takes us through Sophie and Calum’s vacation at a Turkish seaside resort, which is full of the kinds of moments you might commit to a mental photo album: Remember that time we went scuba diving, or ate dinner and ran off without paying? But the movie keeps pulling away from those incidents, lingering in unexpected places. 

The story is clearly told from Sophie’s point of view, but a perceptive viewer will notice there are scenes where Sophie is not present. The film, then, is from the adult Sophie’s point of view, an adult—a new parent herself—looking back on this vacation, curious about what her father must have been going through. She knows her own memories of the vacation. But what was going on with him?