Is Aftersun based on a true story?

Aftersun is a 2022 coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Charlotte Wells, starring Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, and Celia Rowlson-Hall.

According to the director Charlotte Wells, the film is “emotionally autobiographical” about her own childhood and relationship with her father, telling W magazine.

“I allowed, in the early stages of the film, my own memories and anecdotes from holidays and throughout childhood to inform the skeleton outline of the script. The process of digging through my past eventually infiltrated the film itself, and it took on this retroactive gaze.”

The film is set in the early 2000s and follows Sophie, an 11-year-old Scottish girl, on holiday with her father in a Turkish resort on the eve of his 31st birthday.

Critics praised Wells’ direction and screenplay, as well as the performances of Mescal and Corio, with the former earning a nomination for Best Actor at the 95th Academy Awards. It was also named one of the best films of 2022 by the National Board of Review.