AFTERSUN: FOMO: FOMO Indi Film Fest

In her debut feature, Charlotte Wells crafts a film built from memory rather than plot. Set during a modest holiday at a Turkish resort in the late 1990s, AFTERSUN follows eleven-year-old Sophie and her young father Calum as they navigate the quiet rhythms of sunburned days and late-night hotel performances. On the surface, very little happens. Beneath that surface, something more fragile is unfolding.

Wells builds the film from fragments: camcorder footage, music cues, and small gestures that accumulate emotional weight. Paul Mescal’s performance as Calum is restrained and deeply felt, while newcomer Frankie Corio anchors the film with remarkable naturalism. The camera observes rather than explains, allowing the audience to piece together the emotional landscape over time.

Much like Lynne Ramsay’s RATCATCHER which we screened last week, AFTERSUN shares a similar childhood subjectivity and refusal to dramatize trauma in obvious ways. It trusts silence, glances and the spaces between conversations.

Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, AFTERSUN quickly became one of the most acclaimed independent debuts of the decade, confirming Charlotte Wells as a major new voice in contemporary cinema, and we think a wonderful inclusion for FOMO's Indi Film Fest.