Brown envelopes, crowded corridors, last-minute UCAS applications—we all remember A-level results day and the uncertainty that filled the air. It marked the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood, as many of us prepared to move away from home, start new chapters, and temporarily leave old ones behind.

Sasha Nathwani’s Last Swim documents these feelings perfectly. This year, the film premiered at the London Film Festival and was nominated in the First Feature Competition category, joining the ranks of British youth dramas like How To Have Sex, Rocks, and Scrapper. The opening sequence introduces us to the lead character, Ziba (Deba Hekmat), who has been struggling with an illness and has spent the summer in isolation. We first see her at an interview for an astrophysics course at UCL, where she faces a condescending, micro-aggressive interviewer who questions her suitability by probing into her family’s educational background. Despite this, the bright A* student excels in the interview. The next scenes take us to her home, as Ziba’s illness subtly reveals itself—she spits blood while brushing her teeth, crushes pills and Mona (Narges Rashidi), her mother, receives a call from her doctor regarding test results while driving Ziba to sixth form. This intense sequence sets the tone for the film’s looming heaviness.

Set in West and North-West London, Last Swim is a poignant coming-of-age drama that captures the adventure of results day for a group of friends on the cusp of adulthood. Against familiar backdrops like the bustling streets of Portobello, graffiti by Abotz, and local spots like Hampstead Heath, the film delves into this bittersweet last day of summer. Before the day begins, Ziba creates an itinerary for her friends to explore these iconic spots, which also includes a view of a rare celestial event at Primrose Hill. Cinematographer Olan Collardy, known for his work on Rye Lane, uses a muted, soft colour palette that reflects the melancholy of fleeting youth, while capturing London’s charm and beauty.

The friend group includes Ziba, who is coming to terms with a life-threatening illness; Tara (Lydia Fleming), Ziba’s best friend; Shea (Solly McLeod), who is facing the disappointment of poor results; Merf (Jay Lycurgo), who is dealing with his mother’s recent death; and Malcolm (Denzel Baidoo), the group’s newest member, who has recently been dropped from a promising football career and is a year older than the rest. Each character carries their own struggles, and the film sensitively explores their shared desire to momentarily escape, sending them across London to complete Ziba’s itinerary. Last Swim masterfully balances youthful optimism with the weight of impending adulthood, as the friends realise this day signifies more than just the end of summer—it’s the end of an era. Their journey is filled with heartfelt conversations, a natural and relatable dialogue that captures the uniqueness of London’s youth. The chemistry among the cast is palpable, portraying the resilience and rawness of friendships that serve as lifelines.

After running around London, Ziba returns home to her mother after a traumatic event the next morning. She finds comfort in playing Iranian folk music and retiring to her bedroom, leaving viewers with a sense of wistfulness, reminded of their own youth and the moment it slipped away. To celebrate the premiere of director Sasha Nathwani’s debut, we caught up with him and lead actor Deba Hekmat to discuss the importance of highlighting heritage in film, London life, Last Swim’s soundtrack, and more.

TRENCH: Sasha, let’s start with you: what made you go with the title Last Swim?

Sasha Nathwani: If I was going to have one more day with my friends in the summer, I would want to be in the water. I love the feeling of being in the water. That feeling of weightlessness, I think, takes us back to what it was like to be a child. So that was the first thing. As the character of Ziba creates this itinerary, she knows that there has got to be some swimming in there and she is going to build the day around that. But then, as we started developing the story, the swimming became a bit more metaphorical because the Last Swim can be interpreted in different ways. It can be interpreted as when she dives in with her friends in Hampstead Heath Ponds, or it could be interpreted in a much darker way. And I thought that was quite interesting, because, without giving away any spoilers, what her last swim was intended to be ends up not being that at all.

Deba, how would you say you relate to your character, Ziba, in terms of ambition, adolescence and identity?

Deba Hekmat: Well, I am Kurdish and Ziba is Iranian, so, off the back of that, immediately you have some cultural similarities. But I would say, within those cultural similarities—and this goes across the board, for every child of an immigrant—there is an innate drive and motivation to do well in school, especially not being from here. I think this is already the catalyst for why first or second-generation kids try so hard in school, and why Black and Brown kids are already, like, overachievers in almost every school, sixth form and university. So I think that was where I drew that inspiration from, just being a second-generation immigrant, and then having my parents be the ones who have come here and risked everything to give me something, a life.

What central themes do you feel like are applicable to this story, and what genre do you feel like Last Swim fits in?

Deba Hekmat: My favourite theme, and I think me and Lydia, one of my mates, we were doing another interview yesterday together, and we tend to speak so much about friendship. In the film we get to explore platonic love in so many different ways. And even though Denzel’s character comes in as a love interest, he is also friends with the wider friendship group. And also, just the way that I think Ziba is reliant on her friends is beautiful; each one of her friends brings her something, and they all give each other something that others can’t. I want to focus more on the love that the friends have for each other.

Sasha Nathwani: So the core theme, for me, is lost youth. The question I wanted to pose with the film is, if you had one day to reclaim your youth, how would you spend it? Where would you go? What would you do? In terms of genre, it’s a coming-of-age drama. I always wanted my first film to be an exploration of young people in London because, growing up, I never saw a film that reflected my experience of growing up here, that reflected my friendships.

What are your top three coming-of-age films of all time?

Sasha Nathwani: Good Will Hunting is one—I’m showing my age now [laughs]. Yes, I’m a millennial! Good Will Hunting was a really impactful film that really stuck with me. Another was KIDS by Larry Clark, set in New York about young people. That film had a profound effect on me. And then, more recently: Call Me By Your Name. I love the visual style of that film, which we kind of took inspiration from, in terms of how we filmed London.

Deba Hekmat: I just wanted to add to what Sasha said as well: we don’t see London in this beautiful, golden, vibrant way that I think Sasha and Olan have been able to capture in Last Swim. And that’s another thing that makes me so proud of the film, because up until now—not to say we’ve only ever seen London in a dark, grey, miserable kind of way—I don’t think we’ve explored London in the summer enough in films. Last Swim made me fall in love with London all over again! I think it made us all fall in love with London all over again, especially because we were shooting over the summer months. It was really special.

Sasha, how did you approach the representation of Iranian culture within a London-centric film?

Sasha Nathwani: I am half=Iranian and I was born and raised in London. My dad is Indian, my mum is Iranian, but I am very close to my mum’s culture. I was very much raised by my mum and my aunts; I was surrounded by Iranian women growing up. I’ve got a lot of female cousins as well, which is why I wanted the main character to be a young British-Iranian woman. We spoke about this a lot, and we wanted to explore the duality of identity, which means for most people in London, you’re not just one thing—you are many things. So when Ziba’s at home, she speaks Farsi to her mum; she might eat Iranian food, and she might listen to Iranian music. But when she’s out with her friends in the street, she’s listening to different kinds of music and speaking a different kind of English and using London slang. I wanted to explore that within the friendship circle too; there are a lot of characters who I think are reflective of the diversity of London.

Staying on that for a moment, how does the diverse backdrop of London influence the narrative and the characters?

Deba Hekmat: I think if you’re truly a Londoner, then your friendship circles really mimic that and it shows that London is the most diverse city in the UK. It’s always been like that for me, especially since going to school in South London. I don’t think, at any point when I was growing up, I felt as if I was othered, or my friends were othered or anything like that because we all kind of came together. I think it really is just a London thing because there are so many of us from so many different cultures and backgrounds, that identity becomes less of a thing and it’s actually more about class.

Sasha Nathwani: That’s a very good point. Just to add to what Deba was saying, I think the diversity of the group isn’t restricted to their ethnicity. It’s also diverse in terms of their social status or class and this was the same in my friendship circle. You can have one friend who lives on an estate, and then you can have another friend whose family lives in a detached house with two cars on the drive. And it doesn’t really matter where you are—you could be at either one of those two places. So it was important to reflect that in the group, that the diversity of the group isn’t restricted to their ethnicity.

How important is music in Last Swim?

Sasha Nathwani: Music is very important in the film and very important to the characters. Deba was sending me music when we were in pre-production. For instance, the last song in the film is not a song that I intended to be in the film, but it’s a song that Deba listened to during a very emotional scene. It was such an interesting choice that I had to put it in the film; it’s by an Iranian folk musician called Kourosh Yaghmaei, who is someone that affirms Ziba’s identity in the film. Most of the music in Last Swim is from well-known British artists, like Jamie XX, Fred again.., The Streets and King Krule, but I really wanted some Iranian music in there and so the last track was brought by Deba.

What were some of your favourite visual elements or creative elements portrayed throughout the film? For example, we can see the grade dip and get darker when things get heavier in tone—was that a consistent stylistic choice?

Sasha Nathwani: Last Swim deals with some dark elements and they are generally introduced in a slightly different way, stylistically. It’s not just the look of the film, but the emotional tone of the film, and Deba’s performance. The film basically dances between moments when she’s out in the open with her friends, and then there are other moments where you see the character on her own dealing with the stuff that only she knows about. So you do feel the real difference between those two worlds and the film basically dances between these highs and lows which is reflected in the look.

We spent a lot of time designing the look for the film. So the cinematographer, Olan Collardy, who shot Rye Lane, he’s someone I’ve known for a while; we’ve shot some music videos and other projects together. Throughout the film, we applied more of a progressive grade; as Ziba becomes a bit more relaxed, for example, the colours become more vibrant and a bit more dream-like. That was something we had a lot of fun with. But as we’ve discussed, we just wanted to shine a light on how lush London looks in the summer, how green the parks are and also the feeling of heat and sweat. Being in a city that doesn’t necessarily cater for extreme heat, we don’t have a culture of air conditioning like a lot of other cities, so it was about tying together all of those elements.

Without giving too much away, what were some of your favourite experiences during filming, and also some of the more difficult, challenging times that you faced?

Deba Hekmat: My answer is going to be the same for both of those questions. My favourite thing was shooting on real locations in London, like memorable places that we’ve all been to and recognise within half a second. But then, obviously, on the flipside of that, it was very hard to shoot on actual real-life locations. For example, we could have captured Primrose Hill on a really beautiful, sunny day, but when we look back now, that day was probably one of the toughest we had in terms of the schedule. But everybody showed up, every single day. I have never been more proud of something because everybody put the same amount of effort and energy into Last Swim.

Sasha Nathwani: I was just as challenged from a stamina perspective. It was challenging for me, as someone who is experienced in filmmaking. It was hard to work at that pace and also for the cast and for Deba, in particular. It’s a lot of pressure for these young actors to have to show up every day and not just show up, but have to be great. That requires a lot of discipline and consistency. Sometimes we filmed in very busy locations that we could not control, with a lot of noise and interruption outside of what we were trying to do. But we got there in the end.

For people watching, especially teenage viewers or those in similar situations to Ziba, what do you feel will be their biggest takeaway when watching this story?

Deba Hekmat: At the beginning of the film, Ziba lacked perspective in her life because she has only ever had tunnel vision when it comes to academia, her future—her life! So she’s been locked in from the very beginning, and she has never really seen what life could be like from different perspectives and different lenses. But as the day goes on and she gets to know her friends in different ways, she gets to know people in different ways and gets to know herself in different ways. I think that allows her to gain more perspective, but also more hope.

Sasha Nathwani: I guess the thing I want people to take away from Last Swim is that however you’re feeling, it is not permanent. It is temporary and, good or bad, it will pass.