Keswick Film Club - Reviews - After Love

'After Love' looked like a small film, but there were some big ideas under the surface. Mary (played brilliantly by Joanna Scanlan) has married Ahmed and converted to Islam for him. Their lives in Dover seemed calm and happy on the surface, but he dies suddenly and the next day Mary discovers he had a second woman, Genevieve, in Calais. She travels there to investigate, when she realises he also had a son.

So, what is left when you not only lose the man you love but find out that he had another woman all along? This was the premise taken on by director Aleem Khan in our film 'After Love' last Sunday. By a series of (slightly unlikely) events, Mary ends up becoming Genevieve's helper without letting on who she is though she does eventually tell them. The film manages, with very little dialogue, to show the emotions Mary, and then Genevieve and Ahmed's son Solomon, go through mainly by the look in their eyes. With a sort of 'happy' ending when Genevieve and Solomon travel to England to see Ahmed's grave and the three end up on Beachy Head together, the director seems to be saying that 'after love' just comes more love – in this case, the three forgiving each other and sharing their grief.

I have not done justice to this film here, due to lack of space and so as not to put you off going to see it. It left me feeling very moved and full of hope. For such a small movie, no mean achievement.