Last Swim (2025)

**Amazing directorial debut from Iranian British director Sasha Nathwani !** I was lucky to attend the film's premiere on the 16th in Berlin where it is currently nominated for best first feature film and opened the generation 14+ section. My favourite thing about the movie is the way it takes you on an emotional journey laughing one minute and crying the next. The music score is also a personal highlight - blending both British and Iranian sounds to compliment the blended cultural heritage of the film's protagonist and ease you into the story. A few scenes play out like a music video which play on Sasha's background directing music videos. Another highlight would be the cast who naturally complement one another and showcase the talent of Shakira Dowling as a casting director. Stand out talent - Lydia Fleming.

We know from an aborted telephone conversation with her doctor in her car that something is worrying “Ziba” (Deba Hekmat) but she determines that nothing is going to spoil her meticulously planned day. It is the day of her A-level results, and so with her friends they will open the dreaded envelopes and then spend the day messing about on London’s Hampstead Heath where they can swim, cycle, reminisce, look forward and generally chill. Now on the plus side of this drama, it makes no effort to stereotype or to polarise. It’s a multi-ethnic/sex group of friends who rub along well with each other, taking the rise out of each other whilst dealing with some standard issues of teenage angst that we all felt as our hormones raged and our exam results started us (or didn’t) on career paths we were almost certainly never going to end up following in adulthood. Unfortunately, the characterisations are all a bit weakly developed and if you are anything over 20, or not an aspiring footballer, then it doesn’t really offer much more than an observation of a decently adjusted group of youths as they indulge in a good old dose of healthy introspection. The closing stages of the film are not quite what any of the rest of it might have led you to expect, and whilst pointing out a degree of human mortality they seemed entirely unnecessary given what we had gradually learned throughout. The cast do work well. They behave quite naturally with each other and the dialogue is also something that comes across as spontaneous, sometimes engagingly sarcastic, and perfectly plausible amidst a quintet who have grown up together. It’s a simple film, it’s a watchable film - I just didn’t think it was a very memorable one.