A bright young British-Iranian student heads out with friends on their last day of school life. A full day is planned, with a big decision to be made at the end. Last Swim plays at Manchester Film Festival 2025.
British-Iranian student Ziba (Deba Hekmat) seems to be on the right track. With a place at university waiting for her, she heads off to collect and celebrate her examination results along with her three friends Taz (Lydia Flemming), Shea (Solly McLeod), and Merf (Jay Lycurgo). She has the whole day planned for the group, full of her favourite things, including a mysterious last swim at 11.59 pm. Also joining them for the day is Malcolm (Denzel Baidoo), a once-promising football player from their school who seems to have his eye on Ziba.
But what Ziba is keeping from her friends is that she is facing some difficult treatment for a serious illness and is about to make some huge decisions.
Last Swim is a film that I enjoyed very much, despite some irritating aspects (probably down to my pedantry rather than anything else). I have no wish to give any of the plot away, as it unrolls itself steadily over the course of 24 hours. But aspects such as how the young people manage to pay for certain things without apparent access to credit cards, or why a phone call to either the emergency services or a parent wasn’t made at a particular point did take me out of the narrative temporarily – yet I still left the screening with a feeling of fulfilment and satisfaction.
Some of the young actors have more on-screen experience than others, yet they all do a great job in conveying that moment when life is about to change forever – that moment when school becomes a thing of the past, and you’re suddenly standing on the threshold of adult life. Not quite a ‘rite of passage’ story, as each member of the group appears to have already decided what their niche in life is to be (or has society pigeonholed them by default?), but Last Swim definitely has more to it than other ‘last day of freedom’ tales.
Last Swim plays at Manchester Film Festival (14th – 23rd March 2025).
A bright young British-Iranian student heads out with friends on their last day of school life. A full day is planned, with a big decision to be made at the end. Last Swim plays at Manchester Film Festival 2025.
British-Iranian student Ziba (Deba Hekmat) seems to be on the right track. With a place at university waiting for her, she heads off to collect and celebrate her examination results along with her three friends Taz (Lydia Flemming), Shea (Solly McLeod), and Merf (Jay Lycurgo). She has the whole day planned for the group, full of her favourite things, including a mysterious last swim at 11.59 pm. Also joining them for the day is Malcolm (Denzel Baidoo), a once-promising football player from their school who seems to have his eye on Ziba.
But what Ziba is keeping from her friends is that she is facing some difficult treatment for a serious illness and is about to make some huge decisions.
Last Swim is a film that I enjoyed very much, despite some irritating aspects (probably down to my pedantry rather than anything else). I have no wish to give any of the plot away, as it unrolls itself steadily over the course of 24 hours. But aspects such as how the young people manage to pay for certain things without apparent access to credit cards, or why a phone call to either the emergency services or a parent wasn’t made at a particular point did take me out of the narrative temporarily – yet I still left the screening with a feeling of fulfilment and satisfaction.
Some of the young actors have more on-screen experience than others, yet they all do a great job in conveying that moment when life is about to change forever – that moment when school becomes a thing of the past, and you’re suddenly standing on the threshold of adult life. Not quite a ‘rite of passage’ story, as each member of the group appears to have already decided what their niche in life is to be (or has society pigeonholed them by default?), but Last Swim definitely has more to it than other ‘last day of freedom’ tales.
Last Swim plays at Manchester Film Festival (14th – 23rd March 2025).
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