Last Swim

That time when teens are on the cusp of adulthood has long proved fertile ground for filmmakers: Dazed And Confused, Superbad and Booksmart a case in point. Keeping this good company, Sasha Nathwani’s debut feature spans the dawn-to-dusk of exam-results day for budding astrophysicist Ziba (Deba Hekmat) and her gang of less-prodigious pals. But while this may sound like a plot formula already a tad overused, Nathwani adds a doubly poignant twist: Ziba, it’s slowly revealed, is suffering from a life-threatening condition, a character for whom the possibilities of adulthood could be snatched away.

It’s an effectively bittersweet premise from Nathwani and co-writer Helen Simmons. As her friends mark the end of an era and look ahead to the future, Ziba secretly fears a much more serious finite ending. Further cementing the injustice of the situation, the film is prefaced with a scene demonstrating how fiercely talented the British-Iranian teenager is. Her spot at a first-rate London university is already in the bag. She’s aced her exams, clinching four straight As. Rather than seeming chuffed, however, she sneaks off to the toilets to weep.

Suffused with a freshness and vivacity.

Though all this could make for heavy viewing, Nathwani’s teen drama is suffused with a freshness and vivacity, buoyed along by Olan Collardy’s cinematography. (In one sequence set in a newsagent, Ziba appears to be almost floating on air.) Despite the circumstances, the sixth-former is determined to curate the perfect day of revelry – a potentially final farewell to her friends – handing out cutesy printed itineraries which tick off her fave London hangouts, haranguing her surprisingly docile classmates into sticking to the schedule and rounding proceedings off with the free spectacle of a rare asteroid shower (rendered here in slightly unconvincing CGI).

Hekmat (who recently starred in another gutsy coming-of-age story, Hoard) puts in a charged, multifaceted performance as a young woman balancing youthful optimism with a graver melancholy. Nathwani is considerably less interested in his less academic supporting characters, who simply chauffeur Ziba through London and listen to her rhapsodise about clouds or stars without even once taking the piss. The one exception is Denzel Baidoo as uninvited partygoer Malcolm, who hints at hidden depths and hardships experienced by his character and gently creates a feeling of mutual understanding with the film’s lead. In Last Swim, a sense of promise abounds, heralding the start of what will surely be several exciting onscreen careers ahead.