Charlotte Wells’ critically acclaimed debut feature film ‘Aftersun’ opened the 75th edition of Edinburgh International Film Festival on Friday.
The Opening Night Gala screening, sponsored by The Scotsman, had invited the Edinburgh-born Director Charlotte Wells and actors Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio to attend the showing of the film which took place at the Vue Edinburgh Omni.
‘Aftersun’ tells the story of Sophie (played as an adult in a couple of brief episodes by Celia Rowlson-Hall and a young girl by Frankie Corio) who reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father (Paul Mescal) twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t.
‘Aftersun’ won a Critics’ Week Award during this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film is directed and written by Charlotte Wells. Produced by Adele Romanski, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins and Mark Ceryak.
Irishman Mescal had his debut film role with Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal in her directorial debut. As well as Aftersun Mescal also played a criminal in the psychological drama God’s Creatures which premiered at Cannes this year. Both films were received positively and Mescal gained praise for his performances.
Theirs is a nice, friendly relationship with an estranged mum in the background, but the film has menacing and tense overtones throughout. It was subtle but always there, the expectation of something terrible about to happen.
The scene is set as the late night bus arrives at a Turkish holiday resort sparking memories of package holidays and slightly disappointing hotels at the end of a long journey.
The film feels distinctly Scottish with home movie footage interspersed and offering some clues to the real people underneath the holiday personas.
As for the ending? Who knows? I have heard at least four interpretations of it – and is that not the proof of a good story? This is a film well worth seeing when it comes to cinemas.
Filmmaker Charlotte Wells said: “As a teenager, I spent just about all the money I had saved each summer on tickets to EIFF, sitting on the floor at Fountainbridge in hour long queues for box office opening, leafing through the weighty program which offered my first exposure to independent and international cinema. In 2006, I bought tickets to the Duplass brothers’ The Puffy Chair based on its inch-square picture and synopsis. The Q&A that followed made clear how explicit the connection between filmmakers and their work could be; what personal filmmaking could be. In 2006, I attended the opening night film: The Flying Scotsman. In 2022, I’ll attend again. Edinburgh is home and so is the EIFF. I can’t wait.”
Kristy Matheson, Creative Director for EIFF added “It means so much to have Aftersun open our festival and celebrate a homegrown talent whose artistry is entirely international in its scope and appreciation. My heartfelt thanks to Charlotte and the whole Aftersun team for sharing their film with us. After wowing Cannes Film Festival audiences and critics alike, I can’t wait for EIFF audiences to experience the journey that Charlotte and her incredible cast take us on together.”
This year the EIFF celebrates its 75th anniversary, with a host of films, events and programmes that feed into the film festival’s history of supporting new film talent by connecting audiences with innovative and essential storytellers.
More details here.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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