"Nostalgie" (Ferguson, 2025) - Review

As a whole, it’s a very interesting film about reckoning with your art having a meaning outside of what you originally intended for it.

Written by Sydney Grulloń-Matos

Kathryn Ferguson's Nostalgie is about a washed-up British popstar, Drew (Aiden Gillen), who is invited to perform in Northern Ireland. It’s the first time he’s performed in years – as a matter of fact, he’s coming out of retirement for it. We watch as he makes the journey, an air of trepidation around him. When he gets to Ireland, we see that his performance is what seems to be a 100th birthday party. He performs his most well-known song to an absolutely uninterested crowd. It’s an absolutely depressing thing to watch. He continues to perform and sings a lesser-known song of his, and the crowd goes absolutely wild. Drew has no idea why, but finally getting rapt attention from the audience makes him feel like the trek out there was almost worth it…Until his manager (Michael Smiley) informs him that the reason the crowd was so hyped is that the song was playing during a shooting…and then became a political anthem for the times, something that was never his intention. 

The 19-minute short is shot in a way that captures the nostalgia he’s meant to feel while performing these songs; it transports the audience back to the late 90s and early 2000s, with a hazy filter and beautiful color grading – true to the work of cinematographer Robbie Ryan (Bugonia, Poor Things, Marriage Story). What stands out most from this short film is the light throbbing of the bassline of the score, written by Bastille’s Dan Smith. For any fans of the band, it’s a familiar sound to their albums, making it instantly identifiable. As a whole, it’s a very interesting film about reckoning with your art having a meaning outside of what you originally intended for it, but, unfortunately, Drew’s reaction to finding out – a sleepless night and a morning of gambling – leaves a lot to be desired. 

Nostalgie had its premiere at the BFI London Film Festival last year and is now nominated for Best British Short at the 2026 BAFTAs.