London “ inaccessible ” at Gen Z says the last director of swimming

The director of a new film taking place in a suffocating of London over 24 hours on the day of the level results said that the city in which he grew up is now “inaccessible” to many young adults from the Z generation.

Last Swim, Sasha Nathwani’s first feature film, is the story of an ambitious British Iranian teenager, Ziba (played by Deba Hekmat), who, with his group of friends of friends, a day of total freedom, as well as difficult decisions and sorrow, before the group separates after school.

The director tells the BBC that “the film was developed and directed by generation Y, but it is a story of the age generation of the age”.

He says that his interest in making the film explores the idea of ​​the lost youth and that the script, co-written by producer Helen Simmons, was written at the height of the Pandemic Covid-19, although filmed after the end of the restrictions.

“It is not a pandemic film,” he said, “but it was developed at that time when young people around the world had the fundamental years of their lived life.

“When Helen and I wrote it, the world opened and closed, then opened and closed again. There was this pressure, and I remember seeing young people in the park and thinking how it should be for them?

“They all live with their parents, they only met one day, and tomorrow the world will close again.

“So, the question I was trying to ask with the film was, if you had one day to recover your youth, what would you do?”

Nathwani, who has already made clips as well as short films, says that it is his belief that things have worsened for young people after COVID-19.

“I felt that the world was busy when we did, when we wrote it, and now it comes out in the world, there is an argument that things are even worse now,” he said.

“When I was 17 or 18, growing up in London, the city did not feel inaccessible. It seemed accessible to me, and I did not have the impression that the doors were closed in the face.

“Now, I don’t even know how a young person has a period of freedom 24 hours a day without breaking the bank.”

He added: “We are in the middle of a cost of living crisis. Not only is so much, but there are no opportunities. Education is difficult for many different reasons, and some people do not have access due to exorbitant costs.

“You see that in the film, like Ziba and his friends separate.”

A study in 2023 of the University of Oxford revealed that the mental health of young people had deteriorated during the three locking of the United Kingdom COVID-19, compared to a similar study carried out before the pandemic.

And the latest ISS (Office for National Statistics) figures revealed that around one in seven in seven 16-24 years were not in work, education or training between October-December 2024.

The figures from the King’s Trust charitable organization from February 2025 revealed that most of the 16-25 years that he had interviewed were worried about the future daily.

Most of the actors of Last Swim are Gen Z, although the actress of Gangs of London Narge Rashidi also plays in history, as a mother of Ziba.

The main star Hekmat, a Kurdish British model and actor, was 21 years old when the film was made.

“As a generation, there were things that have been launched to us, but also removed,” she said.

“It’s true for me, but when I look at my brothers, it’s when my heart really goes to young people. My brothers were 18 and 20 years old, they crossed adolescence during the covid, there are anyway so many changes in their personal and school life, then for all this.

“We are all gathering and we are reluctant.”

Shot in the British heat wave of 2022, Last Swim takes Ziba and her group of friends through well -known London places such as Portobello Road, Hampstead Heath and Primrose Hill by car, bike and train.

Industry publication Daily screen said The film was “shot, a suspicion, with a touch of guerrilla ingenuity … Last Swim also has an improvised component palpably in the racing jokes to friends of friends”.

The director is appropriate that the young actor had the freedom to change the script “to make him as authentic as possible”.

“I think that every time you tell a story about young characters, you have to give them a certain flexibility,” says Nathwani.

“If there was a more natural way of delivering a line in a language that they would use more authentically, then we wrote that in the script.

“And they were very good to challenge me too. They would challenge me for the choices that I and Helen had made on the page if they did not think it sounded true for their characters.”

“This is the Gen Z friendship on the screen,” adds Hekmat.

“Sasha says that her generation (millennium) is that of hard blows and that they did not grow up with the idea that mental health should be considered in everyday life,” she said.

“I think that an excellent way to see how connected this film is with Gen Z is just the friendship that me and the rest of the gang have together.

“They are not afraid to ask questions about their feelings and the boys are not afraid to open a little more. I think that it really reflects our friendships in the way we can talk to each other.”

While independent cinema is trying to seek a higher audience among young people after the 19th after the 19th, Nathwani says that he hopes that his film captures the energy of young people, while explaining much more difficult emotions and decisions.

“This is the interesting thing about this strange era between school and in-depth education, because the link you have with your school friends will never be closer, tighter than during this summer,” he explains.

“And the moment when summer ends, these links tend to break because people go to different directions. And just in the context of what is happening in the United Kingdom, but around the world too, I think it is really difficult for young people, more than I think we are considering.”

Last Swim was released in British cinemas on April 4, 2025.