Aftersun

In 1999, a Scottish 11-year-old named Sophie Patterson travels with her father, Calum, to a sun-soaked Turkish holiday resort, a trip that will stitch itself into the fabric of memory for years to come. The journey is told through Sophie’s own MiniDV camera, a constant companion whose grainy footage is woven throughout the film, turning ordinary moments into preserved fragments of a fragile summer. As Sophie documents carefree days and noisy nights, she quietly witnesses the hidden ache behind Calum’s outward cheer, a tenderness shadowed by his own inner turmoil.

Calum moves through the days with a practiced calm, trying to wear a mask of contentment even as anxiety and depression tug at him from within. He seeks solace in small rituals—quiet tai chi sessions, the quiet solace of self-help books, and the late-night cigarettes he hides from Sophie’s gaze. The tension between his need to protect his daughter and his struggle to protect himself creates a quiet ache that threads through their every interaction. Sophie, observant and perceptive far beyond her years, sees more than the surface and often uses their adventures to navigate the unspoken distance growing between them.

A scuba diving excursion becomes a pivotal moment. Sophie loses an expensive mask, and Calum’s initial casual reaction masks something more vulnerable. Their bond loosens and tightens in turns as Sophie senses the weight of unspoken fear behind his measured exterior. Later, in a rug shop, the cost of a beloved rug becomes a small but telling symbol of choices and compromises that Calum faces, choices that he ultimately tries to confront alone.

That night, a karaoke gathering lights up the resort. Sophie signs them up for a duet, pleading with Calum to sing with her, but he resists. Undeterred, she performs “Losing My Religion” solo, while Calum watches with a complex mix of pride and sadness. The moment catches Sophie at a hinge between childhood certainty and a more complicated adult awareness. A playful moment turns tense when another tourist unexpectedly creeps up behind Sophie at the pool, reminding the girl—and the viewer—of the ever-present edge in a holiday that is supposed to be carefree. The pair share a quiet moment of reconciliation the following day, and the resort’s rhythm carries them toward a birthday surprise: other guests sing for Calum, turning the resort into a chorus of small, affectionate gestures.

A postcard left on the floor of the hotel room, addressed to Sophie, becomes a haunting reminder: “never forget that I love you.” Calum’s facade shatters, and the film lingers on him in a still, emotional silence—the kind of moment that can hold a life’s worth of questions without giving easy answers. The last night they share a dance to “Under Pressure,” an intimate embrace that feels both intimate and heartbreaking, a hinge point in a relationship that holds both tenderness and fragility.

When they part at the airport in the morning, Calum’s goodbye is quiet but lasting, a final image of a father who loved deeply even as his own burdens shaped his choices. The present day reveals Sophie grown and living in New York with her wife and their child, the rug Calum bought long ago now worn by time and memory as a domestic relic. She replays the Turkish footage, watching a film that seems to move across two dimensions of time—the bright, sunlit holiday and a life that pressed forward beyond it.

Interwoven with the narrative are surreal, dreamlike sequences in which adult Sophie stands within a crowded rave, glimpsing Calum dancing erratically through pulsing lights. These visions trace Sophie’s longing to reach back and reconnect, even as distance and time pull them apart. At moments, she rushes toward him, and for a fleeting breath they almost touch; yet, with every echoing heartbeat and tremor of the music, Calum slips away again from her grasp. The final image holds both release and unresolved ache: Calum places the camcorder away, steps into the airport corridor, and, after bidding Sophie farewell, pushes through the doors toward the electric glow of the rave—an ending that leaves memory hovering somewhere between safety and longing.

Overall, the film builds a meditation on memory, loss, and the quiet power of a single summer that continues to ripple through a life long after the sun has set. It paints a portrait of a father and daughter navigating the precarious line between love and worry, between the warmth of shared moments and the shadows cast by unspoken fears. The camera’s eye—the steady witness of Sophie’s world—keeps watch as time moves on, inviting viewers to reflect on what we remember and what we choose to forget. The result is a deeply reflective, emotionally honest portrait of a family’s summer and the enduring echo it leaves in the years that follow.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:44