My Eternal Summer Sylvia Le Fanu is the heartfelt, bittersweet story of a teenager and her family’s emotions during a last summer together.
What Will Survive of Us is Love
by Alexa DalbyMy Eternal Summer
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
If you didn’t know this was a first feature by a female director, it wouldn’t be hard to guess. It is clearly inspired by personal events and is a heartfelt coming-of-age story.
My Eternal Summer is seen through 16-year-old Fanny’s (Kaya Toft Loholt) eyes as she spends endless summer days in an idyllic coastal location with her parents at their summer house.
But her mother (Maria Rossing) is terminally ill – shown at the start by the delivery of a hospital bed – and they all know it will be the last summer they spend together as a family. They are all affected in different ways. Fanny is a kind, normal teenager who is empathetic to the awful stress, but also needs to escape and get release from unbearable grief by going to a club and getting a summer job.
The strain is not made any easier when a horde of relatives arrive to celebrate her mother’s birthday – unspoken that it’s her last – and Fanny’s serious father (Anders Mossling) emotionally declares his love for his wife, to Fanny’s embarrassment.
Director Sylvia Le Fanu’s previous short Before Long (Om Litt), which also has Fanny as the central character, seems, with hindsight, a rehearsal for her first feature.
My Eternal Summer is a strong and tender debut for a new Danish writer/director.
My Eternal Summer premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival on 23 September 2024 and screens at the BFI London Film Festival on 12 October 2024. International representation is by The PR Factory and world sales by TrustNordisk
