TIFF25: “Forastera” is a Summertime Ghost Story, But Not How You’d Think
This review was originally published on Film Obsessive.
Summertime for young people is akin to another world. The days are longer, the sun is shining, and they get a chance to make decisions for themselves. It’s a time of freedom. In the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival world-premiering Forastera, a young person’s idyllic summer is upended by an unexpected tragedy. Written and directed by Lucía Aleñar Iglesias, this sun-soaked film is a testament to memory and the ways history repeats itself through generations. It’s also, perhaps above all else, a ghost story.
It’s summer in Mallorca and the beaches are filled with tourists from all over. There’s a stark divide between the locals and the visitors, but Cata (Zoe Stein) and her sister (Martina García) fall into a gray area. They don’t live in Mallorca but their grandparents do (Lluís Homar & Marta Angelat), so they spend summers here. When Forastera begins, it’s a dreamy summertime flick that meanders from one scene to the next on the whims of two young teens who have nothing but time. Then Cata’s grandmother, named Catalina, dies in an accident. Their carefree summer is suddenly sidelined by sadness. As time progresses, Cata begins to take on the role of their grandmother in unexpected ways.
Courtesy of TIFF
One could argue that more movies are ghost stories than we’d like to admit. Any emotion can manifest itself in a ghostly manner, but more often than not, it’s grief that lingers. We allow happiness and joy to be fleeting, but sadness and loss we hold onto. Forastera is a ghost story, but not in the traditional sense. It has more in common with A Ghost Story and Presence than a film more wholly centered in the horror genre. Forastera is as much of a ghost story as you want it to be. The same is true for its characters. One could see everything that happens in the film as having a logical explanation. That Catalina’s mimicking of her grandmother is a way of processing her loss. Someone more willing to believe in the supernatural could see it as a possession. Either way, you’re making an interpretation of the film that Iglesias refuses to outright explain. Like the overarching theme of memory, what happens is what we make of it.
Forastera means outsider, but in Mallorca they use it to describe the people who come to the island as tourists. In many ways, Cata is an outsider in her own family’s grief. While she knew her grandmother, they weren’t exceptionally close. Even as they’re spending the summer at their grandparents’ house, Cata and her sister are usually off keeping themselves busy. It’s difficult to mourn someone who’s an important figure in your life, but who you may not have known well. Cata goes through her grandmother’s wardrobe, pulling out dresses she never got to see Catalina wear. Catalina led a multitude of lives and Cata will never know them, but through these clothes she can get a taste. Years ago, Cata’s mother stood in this same spot, playing dress-up in these same clothes. As much as we like to believe we’re unique, time acts in a circuitous fashion. We are the product of our ancestors whose dreams, attitudes, and characteristics continue to ripple through generations.
courtesy of TIFF
Like summertime, there’s a dreamlike quality to Forastera. We’re shown snippets of Cata’s summer that seem like small, unimportant moments, but it’s only through our reflection as the credits roll that we see the true impact they have on Cata’s memories of the summer she lost her grandmother. It’s a film drenched in nostalgia, intent on the act of remembering. Not just remembering the woman Catalina was, but ensuring that this summer will not be forgotten as Cata grows up. We, and history, are doomed to repeat ourselves.
Traumatic events can make young people feel older than they are. That statement is proven to be quite true for Cata. Whether or not you believe in the ghost of the film doesn’t negate the fact that Cata has been irrevocably changed, yet she’s still seen by everyone as a child. Forastera is a powerful debut feature that captures summertime and the tendency of adolescence to swing between freeing and stifling. Between youthful joy and adult sadness. Somewhere in the middle is life itself, in all of its painful, achingly lovely glory.
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