After Love is a stunning debut

Posted on 21st January 2022

Dominating this debut movie from director Aleem Khan is a superb performance from Joanna Scanlan, probably best known for her work in comic gems like Getting On and The Thick of It. Her understated acting here is a revelation, showing how her considerable talents as a serious actor have been previously overlooked.

In After Love, Scanlan plays the part of Mary, who uncovers the secret life of Ahmed when he suddenly dies, so that the husband she thought she knew slowly starts to dissolve in her mind’s eye. Running through the film is a sense of fractured personalities – of one person living different lives. The film is multilingual, but its telling how much of the narrative is presented without words. Scanlan presents Mary as a woman consumed with silent fury, in contrast to the talkative, opinionated Genevieve -Nathelie Riand providing excellent support as the mysterious other woman in Ahmed’s life.

Cinematographer Alexander Dynan’s carefully composed images of domesticity contrast starkly with devastating events that happen (frequently off screen) so that the viewer is never entirely content with what they are seeing, or know what to expect. Mary’s story teeters close to spiralling out of control, but never quite gets there, concluding with a satisfying, albeit stark, conclusion that has the viewer re-evaluating everything they’ve just seen.