Grief is usually loud in movies. There’s screaming, there’s dramatic rain, there are people collapsing at gravesites. But in After Love, grief is a drone. It’s the sound of a tea kettle or the way a woman smoothes out a wrinkle in her husband’s shirt. Honestly, it’s one of the most devastating things I’ve seen on screen in years.
Aleem Khan’s 2020 debut didn’t just arrive; it simmered. It’s a movie about Dover, about Calais, and about the twenty-one miles of cold water that can separate two completely different lives.
You’ve probably seen Joanna Scanlan in comedies like The Thick of It. She’s usually the master of the deadpan or the frantic bureaucrat. But here? She is Mary Hussain, a woman who converted to Islam for her husband, Ahmed. When Ahmed dies suddenly of a heart attack, Mary is left in a house filled with silence and a cell phone that contains a secret so heavy it threatens to sink her entire identity.
What After Love gets right about betrayal
Most people go into this movie expecting a "wronged wife" thriller. They expect Mary to storm across the English Channel to confront "the other woman" with a slapped face and a dramatic monologue. But Khan is a much smarter writer than that.
Mary finds out about Geneviève—a French woman living in Calais—and she does cross the water. But when she gets to the front door, she’s mistaken for a cleaner.
And she just goes with it.
It’s an agonizing, bizarre choice. Mary starts cleaning the house of the woman her husband loved in secret. She scrubs the floors. She does the laundry. She watches Geneviève’s son, Solomon, who is the spitting image of the man she just buried.
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This isn't just a plot device. It’s a study in proximity. Mary wants to know what her husband saw in this other life. She wants to see if the pieces of him that lived in Calais are the same pieces she had in Dover.
The White Cliffs and the cracks in the ceiling
The cinematography is basically a character itself. You have these massive, crumbling White Cliffs of Dover that look like they’re about to fall into the sea at any moment. It’s a metaphor that isn’t exactly subtle, but man, it works.
Khan uses these visual cues to show Mary’s internal world. There’s a recurring image of a crack in a ceiling that seems to grow as her world falls apart. These "hallucinations" or heightened realities elevate After Love from a standard BBC-style drama into something more poetic.
The film is deeply rooted in Aleem Khan’s own life. His mother is a white English convert to Islam; his father was Pakistani. He grew up in that duality. While the plot about the secret family is fictional, the textures—the way Mary prays, the way she wears her hijab, the specific "in-between" feeling of being a convert—are 100% authentic.
Why Joanna Scanlan’s BAFTA win mattered
If you haven't seen the 2022 BAFTA ceremony, Scanlan’s win for Best Leading Actress was the highlight. She beat out Lady Gaga. She beat out Tessa Thompson. She did it with a performance that is almost entirely wordless.
Mary is a woman of immense discipline. When she discovers Ahmed’s second family, she doesn't break down. She implodes. Scanlan plays this with her eyes and her posture. You can see the weight of the secret physically pushing her shoulders down.
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It’s a masterclass in "acting by being."
Often, movies about Islam in the West focus on the "struggle" with the religion itself. After Love doesn't do that. Mary’s faith is her anchor. Even when she’s lying to Geneviève, she’s still performing her ablutions. She’s still seeking God. The conflict isn't between her and her religion; it’s between her and the ghost of the man she thought she knew.
The mirror image: Mary vs. Geneviève
Nathalie Richard plays Geneviève, and she’s the perfect foil. She’s "modern," she’s French, she’s independent. She has no idea she was the "other woman" in a formal sense, because she knew Ahmed was married but accepted the arrangement.
The two women are mirrors.
- Mary had the marriage, but no children.
- Geneviève had the son, but no marriage.
They both loved a man who was essentially a ghost to both of them. He was a ferry captain, always moving between shores, never fully anchored in either place.
The ending that people still argue about
The climax of After Love isn't an explosion. It’s a confession. When the truth finally comes out, it doesn't lead to a catfight. It leads to a strange, quiet sort of solidarity.
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Some viewers find the ending frustrating because it doesn't "resolve" the betrayal. Ahmed is still dead. He’s still a liar. But the film suggests that identity is something we build together. Mary, Geneviève, and Solomon are left in the wreckage, but they are at least standing on the same ground for the first time.
Basically, the movie tells us that love doesn't end just because the person lied. It just gets messier.
How to watch After Love today
If you missed this during its limited theatrical run or its initial streaming window, you need to find it. It’s currently available on BFI Player in the UK and various VOD platforms like Amazon Prime and Apple TV in other regions.
Watch for:
- The sound design. The "drone" of the wind on the cliffs is intentional.
- The way Mary touches objects. Her grief is tactile.
- Talid Ariss as Solomon. He gives one of the best teen performances in recent memory.
If you’re looking for a movie that respects your intelligence and doesn’t feel the need to explain every emotion with a monologue, this is it. It’s a film that stays with you long after the credits roll, mostly because it asks a question we're all afraid of: How well do you actually know the person sleeping next to you?
To truly appreciate the nuance of the film, pay close attention to the scenes where Mary is alone in Geneviève’s house. Those moments of "becoming" the other woman are where the real heart of the story lies. Don't look for the big plot twists; look for the way she folds a towel. That's where the truth is.