Many people have hidden lives, or at least keep some aspect of their day-to-day world to themselves. In ‘After Love’, directed by Aleem Khan, this fact comes crashing into one woman’s life in a way she never expected.
After being very well received at the London, Tokyo, Toronto and Cannes film festivals, amongst others, After Love finally gets its much-delayed UK cinema release on the 4th June, and if you’ve been waiting all this time, it was worth it.
At its heart is Mary (Joanna Scanlan – The Thick of It, Girl with the Pearl Earring, Kinky Boots), who fully converted to being a Muslim many years before, after marrying Ahmed (Nasser Memarzia – The Rhythm Section, Knightfall). For many years Ahmed worked on the ferrys between Dover and Calais, leaving Mary for long periods on time on her own. After Ahmed dies, Mary discovers via a message on his phone that he had another life, and home, away from Dover, over in Calais.
Determined to find out more, she heads to Calais to confront the woman, Genevieve (Nathalie Richard – Never Let Me Go), but instead ends up posing as the cleaner for her and her son Solomon (Talid Ariss), as they move house. Genevieve is still under the impression that Ahmed is about to join them at the new house, and Mary does nothing to dispel her of that notion, focusing on filling in the blanks of Ahmed’s life instead.
It’s a remarkable film that deals with betrayal, notions of family, honesty, relationships, and cultural assimilation, delivered through an amazing performance by Joanna Scanlan. This subject matter could easily have created quite a melodramatic film, but the beauty here is that Khan and Scanlan keep everything very intimate and contained, with Mary’s raw pain and anguish bubbling under the surface.
Even when Mary gets the chance to confront ‘the other woman’, there is a path laid out that keeps things from being explosive, and instead quietly lets the history reveal itself slowly and tortuously. Genevieve isn’t portrayed as the evil home-wrecker either, and there is a lot of nuance in the relationships Mary makes with Genevieve and Solomon.
Those nuances help build a bond between these characters that is destined to be painful, as the affinity they have for each other comes under strain as truth is revealed. That is equally true in both directions, as Mary learns many painful things, alongside the big picture bombshell that lands on Genevieve and Solomon. These twists and turns play out realistically, which is due in no small part to the effectiveness of the cast in creating this believable collision of two worlds.
In some ways it has a bleakness about it that means that you know early on that it will be a poignant piece, but it examines grief and the unravelling of a lie with compassion. That it also delves into cultural identity so well, whether that be through the eyes of Mary or Solomon, is impressive and adds layers that enriches the whole.
With its UK release now imminent, it can only be a matter of time before the rest of the world gets to see what is a highly effective and intriguing film. It also deserves to be seen far and wide, not only for Scanlan’s excellent work at its centre, but also for its deft handling of grief in an unusual situation. One to look out for.
