Last Swim

Greetings again from the darkness. What a downer this one is! That may seem a harsh thing to say about a movie, but it's actually a compliment to writer-director Sasha Nathwani on his first feature film, co-written by Helen Simmons. Few films take on the reality of life that can sometimes be cruel or even savage. This film, and the young(ish) performers never shy away from the tough stuff, and the result is a film that's not a pleasure to watch in the traditional sense, but quite so from a human perspective.

Ziba (the stunning Deba Hekmat, HOARD, 2023) is dealing with a serious (and unspecified) medical issue that requires medication and regular blood tests. The doctor needs her to come in to learn the latest results - the kind that won't be revealed over the phone. Instead, it's A-level results day, where students receive their final term grades. This is followed by a group of friends gathering to hang out and chill. Ziba is Iranian-British and her grades, her friends, and her instructors all recognize her as a brilliant student ... yet she alone carries this secret.

Ziba and her best friends and fellow students: Tara (Lydia Fleming), the rambunctious one; Shea (Solly McLeod), the somewhat self-conscious tough guy; and Merf (Jay Cycurgo), the mysterious one, are joined for the day by Malcolm (Denzel Baidoo), a footballer who just learned that he's been cut by his team. This is the first meeting between Ziba and Malcolm, and everyone senses the immediate attraction.

The day proceeds as the group hangs out and chats. Ziba tosses out a big question, "Are you a good person?" Confessions and self-reflection take over as the group goes down the line. By this time, the others have noticed something is amiss with Ziba. She continues to speak of her future at UCL (University College of London), yet her goody-two-shoes reputation takes a hit or two. It's her love of astrophysics that inspired her to fill out the night section of the day's schedule with the rare celestial event (meteor shower) that will wow the group.

An overall pretty good day leads to a shocking turn and has Ziba questioning the last entry on the day's schedule ... one that only appeared on her copy. Above all, filmmaker Sasha Nathwani captures the power and intimacy of close friends, and how this support is so crucial to life's decisions (even the secret ones).

Available on VOD beginning July 25, 2025.

I usually hate films like this. You know the type. Low budget, feely, sensitive, girly type movies focussing on young, pretentious, dumb adults who think they know it all but know nothing... the girls are usually portrayed unrealistically and the guys as idiot jocks. So nothing to see here... BUT I was made to watch this and review it for my work and wow, I was really surprised. It's a simple story but one that anyone can relate to, especially if you are in the U. K. it doesn't labour on all the usual tropes of stereo types and race cards. It doesn't even make make much of the fact that the 'star' is Iranian and comes from an Iranian family. It just features a good mix of friends that isn't forced or come across as artificial. It just does what it has to and delivers in a way that will make you think, what if... and re-evaluate all that you do and have done with your life... because each of our clocks is only going one way and that is ticking down. The film isn't overly long too and just right at its 90 mins. It's not a movie to change the world and there's no great cinematography or stupendous acting in it. It's just a good watch all the way through. And there's nothing wrong with that.

We know from an aborted telephone conversation with her doctor in her car that something is worrying "Ziba" (Deba Hekmat) but she determines that nothing is going to spoil her meticulously planned day. It is the day of her A-level results, and so with her friends they will open the dreaded envelopes and then spend the day messing about on London's Hampstead Heath where they can swim, cycle, reminisce, look forward and generally chill. Now on the plus side of this drama, it makes no effort to stereotype or to polarise. It's a multi-ethnic/sex group of friends who rub along well with each other, taking the rise out of each other whilst dealing with some standard issues of teenage angst that we all felt as our hormones raged and our exam results started us (or didn't) on career paths we were almost certainly never going to end up following in adulthood. Unfortunately, the characterisations are all a bit weakly developed and if you are anything over 20, or not an aspiring footballer, then it doesn't really offer much more than an observation of a decently adjusted group of youths as they indulge in a good old dose of healthy introspection. The closing stages of the film are not quite what any of the rest of it might have led you to expect, and whilst pointing out a degree of human mortality they seemed entirely unnecessary given what we had gradually learned throughout. The cast do work well. They behave quite naturally with each other and the dialogue is also something that comes across as spontaneous, sometimes engagingly sarcastic, and perfectly plausible amidst a quintet who have grown up together. It's a simple film, it's a watchable film - I just didn't think it was a very memorable one.