Chris Flackett
Growing up and realising the change is coming from being a teenager to becoming an adult is exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. The stress and anxiety of becoming who you want to be, while facing up to who you actually are, can be overwhelming. Now add in a secret illness which presents a legitimate threat to life, heating the anxiety up to boiling point, and you have Last Swim, the debut feature from director Sasha Nathwani, and my favourite film screened to date during this year’s Manchester Film Festival.
Last Swim follows Iranian-British teenager Ziba (Deba Hekmat) and her friends Tara, Shea, Merf and Malcolm on A-Level results day. Ziba is the brightest of her friends and is seen by the group as the one within the friends who will make the most of their life. Indeed, Ziba has earned a place at University College London to study astrophysics. Ziba has been strangely absent during the summer break, but to celebrate getting their A-Level results, Ziba has planned out an itinerary of activities for the friends, culminating in the viewing of a celestial event that just so happens to be taking place that evening. Unknown to her friends though, Ziba is struggling with a severe illness and is so scared that this will derail her future, that she plans to take her own life at the end of the night by jumping into the Thames—her so-called ‘Last Swim’.
Ziba is an interesting character study on the relationship between youth, anxiety and control. Clearly disciplined enough to succeed in her academic studies, Ziba’s need for control extends to other areas of her life—her friends affectionately refer to Ziba’s reputation for being their organiser. However, the itinerary for the A-Level celebration day betrays a deeper need to control what Ziba feels cannot be controlled. Unable to face her illness, and seeing her future disappear in front of her as her doctor recommends delaying her university placement while she gets treatment, Ziba’s anxiety at this lack of control over her own life manifests itself in a need to control her last day with her friends, getting annoyed when things don’t go as planned, as well as planning suicide, unable to face the challenge of her situation.
What Ziba hasn’t bargained on is the sheer joy of spending time with her friends. One thing that Last Swim gets completely right is that feeling of freedom that being a young adult in the summer in England can give you, no matter how fleeting that feeling and that moment might be. I was lucky enough to attend a Q&A after the screening with Deba Hekmet and Lydia Fleming, who played Tara, and Fleming made an excellent point (and I’m paraphrasing her words here) about how that period, when you’ve finished education but you’ve not started work, allows young friends the opportunity to be free together, explore their home towns, run around and be ridiculous and playful and experiment.
Fleming advised she had never seen this quality captured in a film like it’s captured in Last Swim, and I agree wholeheartedly. Watching the gang of friends drive around in a knackered old car, eating falafel, jumping into a local pond and swimming, smoking weed and taking magic mushrooms, cycling and, most of all, laughing and acting the fool, it took me back to my own teenage days where responsibility seemed very far away and just being with your friends and laughing at everything was enough. It’s a delicate balancing act between control and living in the moment, but Last Swim does it with genuine charm and warmth, which is a credit to the cast—you can genuinely believe in them as a group of friends, and the chemistry between them is palpable.
It’s also a very London film, with the city becoming almost another character rather than simply a backdrop to events. Areas such as Portobello, the Westway, Hampstead Heath and Primrose Hill, whilst possibly not quite as famous to international viewers as the normal big tourist spots, are certainly well-known in England and add to the sense of place and sense of freedom of young adults exploring their surroundings and finding their own little places of sanctuary in the process.
Last Swim is a warm, emotional film that absolutely succeeds in bringing viewers into its world, sharing reminders of the importance of friendship and acknowledging that some things are beyond our control. It’s a reminder that we all need from time to time: find this film and be reminded.
The Manchester Film Festival is the UK city’s historic “biggest celebration of the best new and independent film”. Now in its 11th year, Film Obsessive is there to bring you coverage of some of the brightest and best films being screened across the festival week.
