After Love - A well deserved 2022 best actress BAFTA for Joanna Scanlan as Mary - a British Muslim convert who uncovers a secret life left by her late husband, Ahmed.

Introduction - An outstanding and demanding drama from a first-time film-maker. An underplayed, examination of marital infidelity and its' repercussions on two women and a young boy.

Name of film: After Love

Director: Aleem Khan.

Year: 2020

Trailer

Official Poster

Review

Joanna Scanlan is Mary – she converted to Islam after marrying her husband, played by Nasser Memarzia. They live in Dover - he is a ferry captain, often away overnight or days. They seem happy - Mary has a gentle life, happy to look after her husband, while devoutly practising Islam.
But he dies suddenly – this is giving nothing away – this scene happens in the first five minutes.
In her grief, Mary discovers texts between her husband and a rather striking blond woman Genevieve, together with her address in Calais. So Mary travels to France to work out what has been going on.

The way these two women become entangled is the subject of this film – playing largely without music, and in mostly quiet and tense violin driven tones – but there is an undercurrent.
Genevieve has a son and is a single woman - could Ahmed be her father? Does Genevieve realise who Mary actually is?
After Love is played out as a tragedy, with the tension of a drama.
Scanlan is fantastic. She deserves this BAFTA for playing a mortified woman, trying to cover up the emotional turmoil of losing her husband, losing what she knew of him and the loss of her own identity and dignity.
Mary's self-examination is largely silent and it is to Scanlan's credit, that she can let the viewer know that she is obliterated by the subtlety of her acting. Genevieve is slim - Mary looks at her less attractive body in the mirror in a particularly harrowing scene.
The title becomes more appropriate as the movie progresses. Love is not the final destination in this film - it is more a realisation that mortality is always present and forgiveness will not be easy.
The film has quietly tearful, moving ending - if I tell you what it is.. well, that would be giving the game away.
A touching and rather beautiful film.
The film had its premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival during the Industry Selects program, a film market program for films seeking commercial distribution. Throughout 2020, After Love was screened at BFI London Film Festival,Rome Film Festival, and Tokyo International Film Festival. The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2021.

My favourite scene

Scanlan getting her BAFTA. She says that this film was made with extreme love and blood sweat and tears. She thanks her husband Neil. "He is living proof there is no such thing as After Love."

Number of SUBs out of 10 - 7 out of 10

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Thanks for reading my review, always up for comments and a chat about films and TV.