‘Aftersun’ is more than just the story of a summer that an 11-year-old girl shares with her father in a decadent Turkish holiday resort in the late 1990s. Its screenwriter and director, newcomer Charlotte Wells, pours her memories of youth in a film in which he allows himself the luxury and/or the recklessness of trusting a viewer to whom he does not feel that he should give any explanation. There is no need for her to do it. ‘Aftersun’ is one of those films that instead of telling you a story, shows it to you. Like getting lost in the details of a Turkish rug. In the end, under our attentive expectation, everything becomes clear without the need for Lars Von Trier to appear to explain it to you during his credit titles. The art of subtlety, and the emotional maturity of transforming a personal experience into something that can be adopted as universal. Its personal component is as evident as the intention not to get stuck in it, taking refuge in an elusive delicacy and a weightless wandering that shy away from all confrontation, as well as from any dialectical abuse that could weigh down or distract from its intentionally casual mise-en-scène. full of not so small details that lightly outline all kinds of feelings in miniature. This “coming-of-age” with a father-son look is backed by the stupendous performances of Paul Mescal and, above all, Frankie Corio, in one of those debuts that aim to make history. The contained authenticity that ‘Aftersun’ exudes in each and every one of its frames encourages one to think, and to feel that Charlotte Wells could hardly have found better accomplices. Without them there would be no love or magic. I said, at the beginning, that ‘Aftersun’ is something more than the story of a summer that an 11-year-old girl shares with her father in a decadent Turkish vacation complex in the late 1990s. That “something else” that emerges in his last gasp of air, when his hitherto lurking emotional charge rushes in and leads to one of those endings that give dimension to the memories of any childhood. And they cause a summer like that to not be like any other summer.
By Juan Pairet Iglesias
@Wanchopex