HOLD ONTO ME (Κράτα Με) (Sundance FF 2026) – Review by Sherin Nicole
“Strange that it doesn’t exist, but it’s the only way to separate the earth from the sky.”
Musing on the sight of the sky and sea flipped upside-down, Iris (Maria Petrova) defines the concept of a horizon that both is and isn’t. She is also caught in the middle—having and not having a father. Until Aris (Christos Passalis) comes into town to bury his father, her grandfather, and she gets into trouble for stealing while her mother is away. Hilariously, Iris didn’t need to grow up with Aris to inherit his criminal ways. The prickly pair can’t stand each other; their mirrored sullen personalities and acid-dipped tongues don’t sit well together.
Yet Iris yearns for a connection beyond the free-range childhood her permissive mother and resentful father allow. But since she knows her mother well, she sets out to investigate who her father is. And since same recognizes same, the two strike a deal to “work” together to make money. Within that close proximity, Hold Onto Me spins its tale of Cypriot days, where a child searches for something she hasn’t known enough of to define. For Iris, understanding the horizon is easier than grasping the meaning of family.
Winner of the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic – Audience Award 2026, Myrsini Aristidou imbues her debut feature with a sunbaked sense of adventure and intimate camera angles, allowing us to get closer to Iris and Aris as they get to know each other. Rather than a father-daughter coming-of-age, Hold Onto Me is about their friendship and expectations that are exceeded and broken.
Becoming captivated by Petrova and Passalis is easy. You could easily mistake yourself for a nosy neighbor, surreptitiously peeking in on the lives of these two social vagabonds—waiting to see how it’ll all turn out or who will hurt who, but hoping for the best. As the film unwinds, there’s a poetry to the dialogue and cinematography. You find contentment in watching and listening to this pair: one who’s looking for a hero and the other needing a reason to be one. Most cleverly, director and screenwriter Aristidou never lets you guess which is which. Neither do Iris or Aris.
It’s brilliant.
