Last Swim: Sasha Nathwani on making a British-Iranian coming-of-age film

Midway through Sasha Nathwani’s debut feature film Last Swim, there is a striking slow-motion scene showing five teenagers on city bikes peddling through the sun-soaked streets of London, as cumulus clouds float against a blue sky. It’s a clip that beautifully captures the vibrance of London on a hot summer’s day. 

“British films can tend to look very grey but when the sun shines in London, it’s like no other city in the world — and that’s never really been documented,” Sasha, a born-and-raised Londoner himself, tells The New Arab ahead of the film’s UK premiere at London Film Festival on October 14. 

Last Swim follows Ziba Soofi (Deba Hekmat), an 18-year-old British-Iranian girl, and her friends on A-level exam results day — a rite of passage that rests on the precipice of adulthood for British teens — as they roam around the city to mark the end of their college days and simply, just have the best day they possibly can before 'real life' sinks in. 

"Beneath the film’s youthful joy bubbles a darker reality for Ziba, one that asks what it means to come of age when your future isn’t promised"

We quickly learn that Ziba — an overachieving student with a place to study Astrophysics at a prestigious university — has spent the summer away from her friends, grappling with a personal secret. 

Putting this aside as best she can, Ziba has meticulously planned a day of total freedom for her friends, culminating in the viewing of a rare celestial event. What Ziba did not plan, was the addition of Malcolm (Denzel Baidoo), a budding football player who joins them for the day. 

The film follows the group taking all types of transport across London; they track down a beloved falafel shop, sunbathe in Belsize Park, and gaze at the skyline on Primrose Hill. 

“It feels like we made a film for TFL,” Sasha jokes about the city’s transport network, and adds that being young in London can take you anywhere in a single day. 

But beneath the film’s youthful joy bubbles a darker reality for Ziba, one that asks what it means to come of age when your future isn’t promised. 

Youth, heritage and representation 

Sasha was born in London to an Indian father and an Iranian mother and knew from a young age that he wanted to be a filmmaker. 

Beyond film school in New York, Sasha says his “real film education” came as he worked his way up from runner to director’s assistant in London. He says directing was always the goal, and this started with music videos, fashion films, and commercials. 

He began co-writing Last Swim with British producer and writer Helen Simmons during the COVID-19 pandemic when the idea of lost youth was familiar to those spending the key years of their lives indoors. 

The film was also a way of making something that the “16-year-old version” of Sasha would want to see, and this involved tapping into the Iranian side of his heritage. 

Filmed in the summer of 2023 after securing no public funding, Sasha made Last Swim independently and it has since become an underground hit. 

The film opened Berlinale’s Generations sidebar in February and clinched two awards at the German festival, including the coveted Crystal Bear. 

“I was watching the film with like a thousand other people, which is a very vulnerable place to be but it was also really exhilarating,” Sasha recalls, adding that viewers were flinching in their seats at different moments in the film. 

Sasha says he was also validated by the reception from Middle Eastern women, who had a lot of questions for Deba Hekmat during Q&As. “They never saw themselves represented, front and centre, in a Western film,” he says. “If people have an emotional reaction I guess you’ve done your job.” 

Ziba’s character is an amalgamation of several female cousins that Sasha has in Iran. Like his protagonist, these cousins were academically gifted, spoke multiple languages, and played musical instruments. 

Sasha considered how an Iranian girl like this could flourish in the UK when creating Ziba’s storyline: “There’s an even greater sense of tragedy, that here she is in a society where she can do anything that she wants, she can be anyone that she wants, and she has that world of opportunity taken away from her.” 

This is the guiding force behind Ziba’s day of freedom — after following the rules for so long she loosens her grip on control and indulges life’s chaos. 

Sasha wanted a cast who was as close to the age of the characters as possible, to capture the vulnerability of teenagers approaching adulthood. 

"Iranian society before the revolution was very much matriarchal, and it just so happened that while we were writing the film and making the film the Zan, Zindagi, Azadi movement was coming to light so it was important to reference that in a subtle way"

Deba was 21 years old at the time of filming, and she was one of more than 20 actors who auditioned for the role of Ziba. The director had worked with Deba on a music video when she was a teenager and had remembered her distinct look when imagining what Ziba could look like. 

In the end, Deba — the only actor in Last Swim with no formal acting training — won them over with a single anguished look in her audition. “The gift that she has is this incredible instinct,” Sasha recalls.

“She knows how to communicate a lot with just her face and her eyes.” The two spent a lot of time together across six months, working with an acting coach to help Deba bring Ziba and her on-screen relationships to life.

The film’s most powerful through line is the tender relationship between Ziba and her single mother Mona (Narges Rashidi). 

Sasha, who describes himself as “very much my mother’s son,” offers up a love letter to strong Iranian women through their mother-daughter dynamic. We see Mona bringing her daughter comfort food, celebrating her wins, and drawing on the wisdom of generations of Iranian women in the family.

In one scene, Ziba climbs into bed with Mona, their bodies contorted into near-symmetry, and her mother tells her in Farsi that Ziba’s grandmother would remind her that “nothing is permanent.” 

Mona tells Ziba the only exception to that is “my love for you.” The scene draws on the resilience of Iranian women in a new context, as Ziba finds new strength in her mother’s reassurance. 

“Iranian society before the revolution was very much matriarchal, and it just so happened that while we were writing the film and making the film the Zan, Zindagi, Azadi movement was coming to light so it was important to reference that in a subtle way,” Sasha says, referring to the Mahsa Amini protests against Iran’s authoritarian regime in 2022 and 2023.  

Last Swim does not share overtly political messages, but the film subtly nods to Ziba’s political consciousness. Inside her teenage bedroom rests a placard that reads “Women Life Freedom” as well as a “my body, my choice” poster on her wall. 

Sasha says he didn’t set out to consciously capture Gen Z’s activism with these motifs. But in a present-day context — where we have seen young university students across the globe form encampments calling for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza — he can see how the film nods to the “bravery and courage” of this generation. 

Sasha was also positively struck by the confidence of his young cast, who were able to challenge him on why their characters behave a certain way or advocate for changes to their lines.

“If the future is going to be better than the past we need young people to speak up.” 

Last Swim premieres in the UK on October 14 and 16 

Armani Syed is a British journalist specialising in world affairs and global culture. She has previously reported out of the London bureaus of TIME magazine and Business Insider. She writes at the intersection of major events and world news, including the impact of Qatar’s World Cup on migrant workers, protest action in Iran, and how climate change is affecting Hajj. She also covers art, cinema, and music from the global majority