Movies: Islands (2025) by Jan-Ole Gerster: Soaked Despair and a Vanishing Act

Tennis, Tourism & Troubled Souls

Tom, once a promising tennis professional, now teaches lackluster lessons to tourists at a resort on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. His days slip away in alcohol, casual flings, and endless sunshine that feels more like a cage than paradise. He is known to vacationers as “Ace,” a charming figure who hides a life of drift and emptiness.

When the Maguire family—Anne, her abrasive husband Dave, and their teenage son Anton—arrive, Tom’s routine is disturbed. Anne shows subtle curiosity toward him, while Dave’s volatile presence stirs tension. After a night of drinking, Dave suddenly disappears, leaving Tom entangled in a murky web of suspicion, attraction, and quiet guilt. What unfolds is less a thriller than an existential portrait of inertia and disillusionment set against the deceptive beauty of a tourist island.

Why to Recommend This Film: A Vacation Noir with Heart

Why to watch this movie:

• Genre-bending mood — A blend of noir and psychological drama, hiding shadows beneath sunlit leisure.

• Atmospheric richness — The island becomes a character, its beaches and barren courts reflecting alienation and despair.

• Magnetic performances — Sam Riley delivers a restrained, brooding portrayal of a man drifting through life; Stacy Martin and Jack Farthing deepen the intrigue.

• Award-winning score — Composer Dascha Dauenhauer’s music adds melancholy and tension beneath the idyllic setting.

• Critical acclaim — Premiered at the Berlinale, won the grand prize at Reims Polar, and was celebrated at the German Film Awards.

Where to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/de/Film/islands-2025 (Germany)

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27796126/

Link Review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/16/islands-review-sexual-tension-and-dangerously-polite-encounters

About movie: https://greenwichentertainment.com/film/islands/

What is the Trend Followed: Noirish Holiday Dramas

• Paradise as prison — Part of a current cinematic trend where vacation settings reveal inner voids rather than serve as escapes.

• Midlife reckoning — Explores stalled ambition and regret, a theme resonant in contemporary European cinema.

• Slow-burn suspense — Builds unease through silences, gazes, and subtle interactions rather than action-driven plotting.

Director’s Vision: Echoes of Loss in Sunlight

• English-language debut — Gerster steps beyond German cinema to craft a story with universal resonance.

• Inspired by real encounters — A disillusioned coach on Fuerteventura sparked the character of Tom, a metaphor for stasis and faded glory.

• Painterly influence — Long takes and still compositions echo Hopper’s emptiness and Chekhov’s restrained drama.

• Focus on emotional truth — The missing husband plot is a framework, but the real narrative is about loneliness and the failure to escape oneself.

Themes: Stasis, Desire, and Disconnection

• Trapped in paradise — Endless summer reveals emptiness rather than freedom.

• Desire mixed with guilt — Tom and Anne’s quiet intimacy becomes entangled with Dave’s disappearance.

• Mask of charm — Tom’s friendly, detached “Ace” persona conceals deep alienation.

• Existential paralysis — A meditation on how drifting without purpose can be its own suffocating prison.

Key Success Factors: Style, Suspense, and Stillness

• Cinematography — Harsh light and empty landscapes mirror inner desolation.

• Music — Dauenhauer’s award-winning score turns the sunny setting into something mournful and uncanny.

• Performances — Subtle, layered turns by Riley, Martin, and Farthing create tension through what is unsaid.

• Balance of tone — Combines mystery with introspection, making atmosphere as central as narrative.

Awards & Nominations: Subtle Triumphs

• Berlinale 2025: Special premiere screening.

• Reims Polar 2025: Won the grand prize for Best Film.

• German Film Awards: Nominated for Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Sound; Dascha Dauenhauer won for Best Score.

Critics Reception: Quiet Heat, Languid Mystery

• Praised as a “vacation noir” that transforms leisure into unease.

• Critics highlighted Riley’s brooding presence and the simmering tension between him and Martin.

• Applauded for atmosphere, subtlety, and intelligence, though some noted its deliberately slow pace.

• Overall seen as a haunting exploration of loneliness and desire beneath paradise.

Reviews: A Mirage with Depth

• Strengths: Evocative visuals, layered performances, haunting score, and mood-driven storytelling.

• Weaknesses: Slow pace and elliptical plotting may test audiences expecting a conventional thriller.

• Consensus: A thoughtful, atmospheric noir where the real mystery lies in human emptiness rather than disappearance.

Release Timeline

• World premiere: 16 February 2025 at the Berlin International Film Festival.

• German theatrical release: 8 May 2025.

• UK and Ireland release: September 2025, following festival stops in Sydney and Edinburgh.

• Global rollout: Screened at Busan and other major festivals before broader arthouse distribution.

Movie Trend: Quiet Noir in Sunshine

A new strain of European cinema places noir in sunlit settings, showing how brightness can conceal shadows. Instead of rain-slick alleys, Islands unfolds on beaches and courts, where beauty is steeped in existential dread.

Social Trend: Unfulfilled Lives on Holiday

The story resonates with contemporary anxieties about curated lives and escapism. Just as social media presents perfect vacations masking real struggles, Islands shows that paradise does not liberate—it amplifies disconnection.

Final Verdict: A Mirage That Lingers

Islands is a vacation noir of rare subtlety. Jan-Ole Gerster crafts an unsettling portrait of drift, desire, and alienation, where mystery exists less in a man’s disappearance than in the silence between people. Beautiful, unsettling, and unforgettable, it’s a film that leaves you stranded on the shoreline of your own thoughts.