Hold Onto Me (MIFF Schools)

A young girl connects with her miscreant father via small-time hustle in this beautifully photographed, emotionally deft, Sundance Audience Award–winning debut.

Over a never-ending Cypriot summer, mischievous 11-year-old Iris has all the freedom she could want. With a mother who’s always working and an older brother who has a brand new girlfriend, she’s left to her own devices, and takes the opportunity to run wild. When Iris ends up in a police station, the only one to bail her out is her estranged father, Aris (Christos Passalis, Dogtooth, MIFF 2009), unexpectedly back in town and in her life. These two misfits soon find that they’re a lot alike, striking a deal to work – or more specifically, hustle – together.

With echoes of Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 classic Paper Moon and recent MIFF favourites Aftersun (MIFF 2022) and Scrapper (MIFF 2023), Myrsini Aristidou’s impressive debut is a poignant riff on the young-father/daughter dynamic as well as a study of two charismatic, complicated characters. Bolstered by brilliant images of the Mediterranean, evocative sound design and a perfectly tuned score from Alex Weston (The Farewell, MIFF 2019), Hold Onto Me is a work of heady atmosphere and heartfelt emotion.

“Emotionally potent and quietly devastating, Hold Onto Me crescendos in unexpected ways, letting its quiet interiority do the heavy lifting … a richly satisfying, slow-burn coming-of-age journey.” – Silver Screen Riot