‘The Son And The Sea’ review: A journey of self-discovery leads to Scottish coast in impressive debut

Dir: Stroma Cairns. UK. 2025. 102mins

A troubled young man leaves his hedonistic London life to travel to the north of Scotland in search of some headspace, his best mate in tow, in this accomplished feature debut by Stroma Cairns. Foregrounding a more sensitive side of masculinity, and featuring strong performances from its cast of deaf and first-time actors, the film should forge its own path following its Toronto premiere and subsequent berths in San Sebastian and London.

Intimacy and authenticity 

The Son And The Sea is a deeply personal project for Cairns, who has previously made short films including If You Knew (2019) and Blud (2019), and contributed a segment to 2020 portmanteau documentary The Uncertain Kingdom. This feature is based on her own family history, is co-written and co-produced by her mother Imogen West and stars her brother Jonah West in the lead role. That brings an intimacy and authenticity to this coming-of-age tale, which has a thematic kindship with Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun (2024) and George Jacques’ road trip movie Black Dog (2023).

Jonah West plays Jonah, who we meet in a London-set montage of boozy late nights and regretful mornings. It’s not long before Jonah decides he wants to try something new, and persuades his filmmaker mate Lee (Stanley Brock) to travel to the village of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, on the north east coast of Scotland, to stay in the house owned by his aunt, who has been hospitalised with dementia. Arriving after an arduous journey, the boys soon meet deaf local lad Charlie (Connor Tompkins), who communicates in British Sign Language and seems delighted to take the newcomers under his wing, and Charlie’s more taciturn twin brother Luke (Lewis Tompkins who, along with his brother, was the subject of If You Knew).

Following this early flurry of activity, not a huge amount seems to happen as Jonah and Lee attempt to settle into this isolated community – on the surface at least. But the screenplay, by Cairns and West, is more interested in the inner lives of these characters. As written (and sensitively performed by Jonah West), Jonah is not just a standard directionless angry young man, but a layered, complex character who understands he wants more from life but just doesn’t know where to look. And Jonah isn’t the only one battling demons; Charlie grows increasingly worried by Luke’s troubling behaviour, and younger local lad Sandy (Grant Lindsay) is also in danger of being corrupted by forces outside of his control.

Cairns does pepper the narrative with a couple of more typically dramatic moments, including a drugs subplot that goes nowhere and a rather melodramatic climax, but The Son And The Sea is strongest in its quieter spells. The director clearly has a deep connection with all the elements of her film – not least the glorious location, where her grandfather worked as a fisherman and she spent many summers as a child. She doesn’t romanticise this rugged coastline, which is pounded relentlessly by the elements and beautifully shot in natural light by cinematographer Ruben Woodin Dechamps, but rather embraces its wild, unpredictable nature as an opportunity for change.

Change is at the heart of this film, although it doesn’t come in a heady rush of realisation but slowly, steadily and with setbacks along the way. While Jonah doesn’t seem to be a religious man, there are a lot of touchstones around faith – his name obviously being the first, Toydrum’s excellent, evocative soundtrack feeling almost spiritual at times. Yet the film’s clear message is that redemption doesn’t come from any higher power, but from within. One of the film’s standout moments is a spine-tingling acoustic rendition of ‘The False Knight On The Road’; as Jonah discovers, it’s the choices we make – and the people that we meet – that set us on the right path.