Aftersun

An extremely beautiful film, Aftersun is a slow, melancholic, and nostalgic story on childhood, fatherhood, depression, and our memories of the important people in our lives. Every scene felt extremely relatable to me, with much of the film focused on simply showing how it feels to be eleven. We see in detail how she experiences the world, what she learns from everything around her, and how sad and awkward it can feel to interact with anyone at that age (and yet these moments are also interspersed with moments of wonder and joy).

The rest of the film and most of it’s main “plot” has to do with the disaffected father, his relationship to his daughter, and how he reacts to the changes she’s going through on their vacation. His presence and the importance of this time with his daughter is felt constantly. She is his world. His life outside of her is hinted at but not explored too much, but it doesn’t need to be—this special time spent together tells us all we need to know. I was surprised at just how heavily I related to both father and daughter, and how happy and unfortunate the entire experience felt.

There is not necessarily shocking drama here. There is a good structure to the plot, it’s perhaps not a slice of life piece, but it is still centered on the mundane. I felt completely comfortable being engrossed in this, however. It was never boring. Just wistful and bittersweet. It hit home for me as someone with my own complicated relationship with my dad, who also coincidentally filmed much of our time together on potentially the exact same MiniDV camcorder that’s heavily featured in the movie, the digitized home videos of which I’ve watched back at times as I’ve gotten older. But I know it also hit home for many different reasons for my partner with her own set of family relations. Even if the familial story doesn’t hit you (if you’re lucky enough to be without Daddy Issues), I suspect the raw childhood memories documented here will resonate deeply for many. I would highly recommend finding the time for this one.