A washed up English tennis pro, Tom (Sam Riley) now coaches tourists in a middling resort in Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands. Drawn to the mother of one of his students, Tom agrees to show the family the island. But the father, Dave, vanishes after a night of heavy drinking, and suspicion falls on Tom and Anne (Stacy Martin).
Jan-Ole Gerster’s compelling mystery is a sly character study masquerading as a sunswept neo-noir. To say more would be to undermine the movie’s subtle play on desire and gratification, insinuation and ambivalence, but this is a thoroughly engrossing slow reveal of a film.
A sun-baked dream noir that unfolds like a rivetingly seductive mixed doubles match between Patricia Highsmith and the main cast of Challengers…Hypnotic from start to finish.
B+ David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Islands is engrossingly observant, fascinating in its restrained exploration of human interiority, and persuasive and even intoxicating in its rich examination of longing, emptiness, and the ways we deeply yearn to be found…
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
Jan-Ole Gerster
Sam Riley, Stacy Martin, Jack Farthing, Dylan Torrell
Germany
2025
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
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Credits
Screenwriter
Jan-Ole Gerster, Blaz Kutin, Lawrie Doran
Cinematography
Juan Sarmiento G.
Editor
Antje Zynga
Original Music
Dascha Dauenhauer
Production Design
Cora Pratz
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