‘The Son And The Sea’ review: A journey of self-discovery leads to Scottish coast in impressive debut

Dir: Stroma Cairns. UK. 2025. 102mins

A troubled younger man leaves his hedonistic London life to journey to the north of Scotland in the hunt for some headspace, his greatest mate in tow, on this achieved characteristic debut by Stroma Cairns. Foregrounding a extra delicate aspect of masculinity, and that includes sturdy performances from its forged of deaf and first-time actors, the movie ought to forge its personal path following its Toronto premiere and subsequent berths in San Sebastian and London.

Intimacy and authenticity 

The Son And The Sea is a deeply private venture for Cairns, who has beforehand made quick movies together with If You Knew (2019) and Blud (2019), and contributed a section to 2020 portmanteau documentary The Unsure Kingdom. This characteristic is predicated on her family historical past, is co-written and co-produced by her mom Imogen West and stars her brother Jonah West within the lead position. That brings an intimacy and authenticity to this coming-of-age story, which has a thematic kindship with Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun (2024) and George Jacques’ street journey film Black Canine (2023).

Jonah West performs Jonah, who we meet in a London-set montage of boozy late nights and regretful mornings. It’s not lengthy earlier than Jonah decides he needs to attempt one thing new, and persuades his filmmaker mate Lee (Stanley Brock) to journey to the village of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, on the north east coast of Scotland, to remain in the home owned by his aunt, who has been hospitalised with dementia. Arriving after an arduous journey, the boys quickly meet deaf native lad Charlie (Connor Tompkins), who communicates in British Signal Language and appears delighted to take the newcomers beneath his wing, and Charlie’s extra taciturn twin brother Luke (Lewis Tompkins who, alongside along with his brother, was the topic of If You Knew).

Following this early flurry of exercise, not an enormous quantity appears to occur as Jonah and Lee try to settle into this remoted group – on the floor at the least. However the screenplay, by Cairns and West, is extra within the inside lives of those characters. As written (and sensitively carried out by Jonah West), Jonah is not only a typical directionless offended younger man, however a layered, advanced character who understands he needs extra from life however simply doesn’t know the place to look. And Jonah isn’t the one one battling demons; Charlie grows more and more fearful by Luke’s troubling behaviour, and youthful native lad Sandy (Grant Lindsay) can also be in peril of being corrupted by forces exterior of his management.

Cairns does pepper the narrative with a few extra sometimes dramatic moments, together with a medicine subplot that goes nowhere and a somewhat melodramatic climax, however The Son And The Sea is strongest in its quieter spells. The director clearly has a deep reference to all the weather of her movie – not least the fantastic location, the place her grandfather labored as a fisherman and he or she spent many summers as a baby. She doesn’t romanticise this rugged shoreline, which is pounded relentlessly by the weather and fantastically shot in pure mild by cinematographer Ruben Woodin Dechamps, however somewhat embraces its wild, unpredictable nature as a chance for change.

Change is on the coronary heart of this movie, though it doesn’t are available a heady rush of realisation however slowly, steadily and with setbacks alongside the best way. Whereas Jonah doesn’t appear to be a non secular man, there are a variety of touchstones round religion – his identify clearly being the primary, Toydrum’s wonderful, evocative soundtrack feeling virtually non secular at occasions. But the movie’s clear message is that redemption doesn’t come from any greater energy, however from inside. One of many movie’s standout moments is a spine-tingling acoustic rendition of ‘The False Knight On The Highway’; as Jonah discovers, it’s the alternatives we make – and the folks that we meet – that set us on the fitting path.