Last Swim (in-person & online)

Deba Hekmat, Narges Rashidi, Solly McLeod, Denzel Baidoo

Last Swim follows Ziba (Deba Hekmat) as she holds her breath on A-level results day. Desperate to study astrophysics at university, she’s equally determined to make the first day of her adult life a day to remember. But when her tight-knit group of friends are joined in a cross-London all-day party by newcomer Malcolm (Denzel Baidoo), she must reckon with a darker truth that none of her friends have been brought into.

Last Swim’s plot has plenty of high-stakes elements, but it never strays into melodrama, aided by an impressive young cast – many of them new faces – who bring improvisational and lived-in quality to the performances. At the centre of this group is the wonderful Deba Hekmat, in a performance that makes her one to watch. As in her terrific supporting role as tearaway best friend in Luna Carmoon’s Hoard, Hekmat conveys a world of grand and petty frustrations in a single look. Giving specificity to Ziba’s Iranian-British roots (as well as crafting a genuine friendship group to surround her), first-time director Sasha Nathwani captures a day that will live on in nostalgia; at once quotidian and human-sized, but tinged with emotions that scream with galactic significance for those on the edge of adulthood.