Islands

(15) 2 hours 0 minutes
Director: Jan-Ole Gerster
Cast: Sam Riley, Stacy Martin, Jack Farthing
Read the BBFC report here

Tom is a former tennis pro working at a luxury hotel in Fuerteventura, hitting balls across the net for tourists. Existing on a permanent holiday, Tom spends much of his time indulging in drugs and alcohol, and flings with tourists, blacking out and waking up all over the island. Though he appears to be in paradise, it’s an unfulfilling existence.

When Anne and Dave Murphy arrange for Tom to give lessons to their son Anton, Tom wonders whether their lives are as refined as his. But he feels a familiarity with Anne. Have their paths crossed before? Could Anton be Tom’s son? When Dave suddenly disappears, Tom finds himself drawn into a mystery that will finally force him to make decisions about his life.

Sam Riley stars in this tense neo-noir thriller with Hitchcockian undertones where the silences between characters can say as much, if not more, than the dialogue.

“Audiences are in for a scorching, sun-frazzled Hitchcockian delight” Evening Standard

“smoothly makes the transition from a romantic drama to an understated thriller, and it’s utterly intoxicating” Vague Visages

“a holiday mystery that wrong-foots us with clever backhand” Telegraph

“Hypnotic from start to finish” IndieWire

15: strong language, drug misuse