Please note that this is a private screening for members of Woodbridge Film Society and not open to the public. If you wish to join the Film Society then please visit their page here
Last Swim follows Ziba (Deba Hekmat) as she holds her breath on A-level results day. Desperate to study astrophysics at university, she’s equally determined to make the first day of her adult life a day to remember. But when her tight-knit group of friends are joined in a cross-London all-day party by newcomer Malcolm (Denzel Baidoo), she must reckon with a darker truth that none of her friends have been brought into.
Last Swim’s plot has plenty of high-stakes elements, but it never strays into melodrama, aided by an impressive young cast – many of them new faces – who bring improvisational and lived-in quality to the performances. At the centre of this group is the wonderful Deba Hekmat, in a performance that makes her one to watch. As in her terrific supporting role as tearaway best friend in Luna Carmoon’s Hoard, Hekmat conveys a world of grand and petty frustrations in a single look. Giving specificity to Ziba’s Iranian-British roots (as well as crafting a genuine friendship group to surround her), first-time director Sasha Nathwani captures a day that will live on in nostalgia; at once quotidian and human-sized, but tinged with emotions that scream with galactic significance for those on the edge of adulthood.
