Charlotte Wells‘ debut feature Aftersun; a tender and almost unbearably bittersweet father and daughter drama, has become perhaps the most ecstatically-received opening gala film of the Edinburgh International Film Festival for some time. It’s easy to see why. It’s a beautifully relaxed, unhurried, and confident film that one comes to luxuriate in like a mid-afternoon swim at the Turkish resort in which it’s set.

A young woman, Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall), looks back on a holiday she spent with her father Calum (Normal People star Paul Mescal) in the late ’90s. The young Sophie (a fantastic Frankie Corio) senses something deeper and sadder in Calum than she can articulate, even though the pair have an easy intimacy. The two enjoy their holiday, but the portents of something intangibly final were there all along now Sophie has the capacity to reflect.

Wells’ approach is oblique, but never abstract. She has in fact managed to transfer the stark leanness of her short films like Tuesday and Laps to feature length immaculately. It’s an absolute masterclass in show-don’t-tell. All the information the audience is required gradually appears like the sun over the horizon, from the time period, to Calum and Sophie’s relationship, to Calum’s troubled state.

There are also things Wells never makes clear that we nevertheless feel deep in the gut: Why does Calum begins the holiday with a cast on his arm? How long and for how often has Sophie spent reflecting on this holiday? And why this aching sense of guilt and regret that permeates a film with no scenes of tragedy, chaos, or melodrama?

The other remarkable thing about Aftersun, apart from Wells’ well-founded refusal to hold the hand of the audience, is the central relationship between Mescal and Corio. It’s implied that Sophie was born while Calum was in his teens, so there’s a sense of mutual fun that may be missing with an older parents. Yet, there’s also the sense that Calum feels overwhelmed by this responsibility which leads to his more self-destructive behaviour. Again, both actors somehow embody these complex feelings without having to be vocalised, especially astonishing from the charming Corio.

The way Aftersun dramatises both the closeness and distance of the parent and child relationship brings to mind Céline Sciamma‘s gorgeous fable Petite Maman. Both use a distinctly poetic approach to find a deeper truth, and an aching sense of elegy. Sciamma’s film is more overt fable, but Wells allows some magical realist touches to creep in too, such as in a moment where adult Sophie gets to dance with Calum at a nightclub.

Charlotte Wells has come up with a truly special debut here; a tantalising and haunting intersection of memory, grief, and longing that burrows deeper into the viewer with every passing day. The elliptical approach somehow hits on something universal, as if the avoidance of specificity allows one’s own experience, joy, and sadness to seep into the gaps. And that closing shot is just perfection.

Screened as the Opening Gala Film of Edinburgh International Film Festival