Writer-director Stroma Cairns' feature directorial debut, THE SON AND THE SEA is a beautifully rendered story of four young British men trying to find their place in the world. The film stars the director's brother, and debut actor, Jonah West as Jonah, a frustrated twentysomething man trapped in the nihilistic London party scene. He decides to take a train to a coastal northern Scottish town to visit his ailing great-aunt, now in a dementia-care nursing home. His best mate Lee (Stanley Brock) tags along but their relationship is one of alternative laughs and bickering as Lee tells Jonah he needs to stop making excuses and sort himself out. Once they get to Scotland, Jonah and Lee meet two more young men: Charlie and feckless twin brother Lee (Connor and Luke Tompkins). Both have hearing disabilities but it's great to see this treated in a very straightforward way rather than as a plot device.
Stroma Cairns captures something really beautiful and perceptive about how young men are with each other and the drifting, aimless vulnerability of not having a plan for your life. It's a patient film that watches them derp around but also face moments of real crisis, lensed beautifully by DP Ruben Woodin Dechamps, with a banging soundtrack from Toydrum (Slow Horses).
THE SON AND THE SEA has a running time of 102 minutes. It played Toronto and will play the BFI London Film Festival 2025.
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