‘Hold Onto Me’ review: A tentative father-daughter relationship informs nuanced Cypriot debut

Dir: Myrsini Aristidou. Cyprus, Denmark/Greece/US. 2026. 102mins

Desire is a term usually associated with romance, but its platonic equivalent burns with the heat of the late summer sun at the heart of this refreshingly unpredictable Cypriot father and daughter drama. It ambushes 11-year-old Iris (magnetic newcomer Maria Petrova) after an unexpected encounter with her long-absent father and its intensity drives the film as they forge a tentative relationship.

A raw authenticity guards against sentimentality

Director Myrsini Aristidou has been breaking new ground with her impressively nuanced debut since it became the first film from Cyprus to screen at Sundance, where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition. It has since travelled extensively on the festival circuit, with most recent stop-offs in Thessaloniki and Tallinn, and has also become the first-ever Cypriot film to be submitted for the best international feature Oscar. The film’s basic set-up may sound familiar, but Aristidou has a flair for framing and a non-sentimental approach that makes it distinctive and should help it attract arthouse distributors and audiences who warmed to the offbeat charms of the likes of Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper.

Chief among its selling points is Iris, whose perspective dominates. Living with her older brother and single mum (Aulona Lupa), she’s a streetwise kid who doesn’t back down easily and who is generally left to her own devices. That means hanging about with the pensioners chewing the fat outside the local bar and getting up to mischief with her older best mate Danae (Jenny Sallo), whose own homelife is less than rosy. The girls get caught stealing a boat and, with Iris’s mum out of town on her latest romantic dalliance, her dad Aris (Christos Passalis)  is called upon to pick her up. He’s in town for his own father’s funeral and hasn’t seen Iris since she was a baby.

What fascinates Iris from the off is that Aris shares her outsider status. “It’s one thing to make a wrong decision,” he tells her, “and another to get caught for it.” She immediately sees him working the angles and starts to work her own, refusing to be cowed by his attempts to ignore her. He, in turn, realises that Iris could be useful, helping him in petty scams, Paper Moon-style, even as it becomes apparent that there are high stakes and violent men involved in his hunt for quick cash. Aristidou adeptly handles the mood shifts from the start; when Danae pushes Iris off a boat, it reveals an edge of danger that glints sharp at key junctures throughout the rest of the film.

Lasse Ulvedal Tolboll’s camerawork has a loose and fluid flow that seems to feed on Iris’s energy. There’s freedom in the way the youngster rides on the back of Danae’s moped as they speed over the salt flats, marginalised kids on an otherworldy landscape. Aristidou pays attention to Iris, tuning into her emotions – her refusal to smile for one of Danae’s TikTok videos is just one indication of the melancholy that, despite her outward feistiness, underpins much of her life. Alex Weston’s score also tunes into the youngster’s feelings.

The writer/director lets the dad and daughter relationship unfold naturally, captured in unexpected casual moments, such as when, upon finding Aris asleep, Iris reaches out to stroke his face as she might a wild animal, her fascination burning bright. Her longing comes to fore again as she watches Aris try to persuade a boat engine to work, cajoling it with the sort of language you might lavish on a child. Aristidou is also alive to the landscapes of Nicosia and Limassol, where the film was shot, so that some scenes have a documentary feel that adds a raw authenticity that guards against sentimentality.