Is Aftersun the best film of the year?

Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun is an exceptional exploration of a father-daughter relationship, as seen through the prism of adulthood. Deftly autobiographical, it is the director’s threshing, flailing attempt to understand her father and his unexpressed grief that she had sensed as an 11-year-old when they went on a holiday together to Turkey.It was meant to be a fun holiday. And it was! But it is underlined by a profound sense of melancholy. That holiday spent in a bustle of swimming and bantering becomes the centrifugal thought in the theme of things. This is a lovely film, delicately drawing the daughter’s thoughts out of their memory slumber to portray the father as a brave, generous, caring soul striven by his failure to be the kind of patriarchal provider who can fulfil his daughter’s every wish: hence the cheap vacation, hence the cutting of corner. Hence the constant nagging concern, the counting of pennies.

And yet in spite of the elephant in the room, father Calum and daughter Sophie share a beautifully unstated bond of mutual love and understanding that spreads itself out over a week in the seaside resort. Of course, it’s not all sweetness and kinship. The holidaying twosome have their bitter moments, especially when she signs up for singing on stage for both of them and the father refuses to join the daughter for the song, later adding insult to injury by telling her, “If you want to sing you should tell me. You can be enrolled into singing lessons.’ To which Sophie, not one to take a taunt lying down, retorts, “You know very well you can’t afford it.” The conversations sound energetic and unrehearsed even when biting and hurtful. The father and daughter share silences as much as conversations and the camera gives them room to do as they like. I don’t know how much of their conversations are improvised. I doubt there is any room for unrehearsed thoughts in this film about reclaiming a vital part of the past. The compelling quietude that encircles the central relationship stays with you. It defines the film and its existence, and yet the father-daughter relationship is not seen through rose-tinted glasses. Set in the 1970s, the narrative opens its heart to what Sophie recalls through her constant video recording during the memorable unforgettable yet gap-filled vacation with her father. Why did Calum suddenly lapse into bouts of depression? Was it only the economic uncertainty? It is his birthday treat for the two of them, and Sophie while recording wants to know what Calum did on his 11th birthday. Calum clams up. Any reminder of his past disturbs Calum. Any plans for the future distracts him. So the question that triggers this film: what made Calum so sad in spite of the brave front? Was it his concern for Sophie’s future? Or was he a closeted depressive? Sophie would never know. Memories of that holiday with her father haunt her adulthood. The rave parties, the underwater swims, or just lazing at the poolside….what did it all add up to? Does it have to add up? Charlotte Wells tells us that the unfinished songs of life are the sweetest. And she is right! This is the rarest of rare ruminations on a daughter’s love for a father she thought she knew. If she only knew! Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.