Summer Cinema: Aftersun

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Within the confined space of a summer resort, the complex layers of their bond gradually unfold. In fragmented memories, adult Sophie tries to piece together a unified image of her half-present father, whom she only saw sporadically as a child due to her parents' separation. This debut by Charlotte Wells captures fragments of childhood memories and doesn’t require flamboyant gestures to portray unutterably intense life impressions. With its delicately impressive storytelling and overwhelming empathy, it has become an audience hit at dozens of festivals, including Cannes, Toronto and Karlovy Vary.
  The first movie pick from MeetFactory's residency team was selected by curator Kateřina Pencová and producer Sasa Vitov.
 

"We don’t consider a summer without Paul Mescal to be a truly lived summer. But we wanted to stay at least a little critical, and instead of Gladiator II, which we find quite overrated, we chose the much more intimate film Aftersun—because if there were an Oscar for the category 'sexy-sad,' the winner would be obvious,” says Kateřina. Saša adds: “Aftersun evokes a deep sense of nostalgia—not just for the life you once lived, but also for the one that might have been. It carries echoes of lost love and memories you could have shared with those closest to you. It’s about the quiet sorrow of missed moments, something that can resonate with many people on different levels. A beautifully bittersweet summer film that’s well worth seeing.”
 

---

Aftersun
director: Charlotte Wells
UK / USA, 2022, 96 min
Free Entry  

---

Summer cinema returns to MeetFactory for the thirteenth time. Every Wednesday from June to September, we’ll be screening one from a selection of twelve films — personal favorites curated by members of the MeetFactory team — in the Factory's backyard.