September Afternoon — Nicolaas Schmidt [Locarno ’26 Review]

Like his previous feature, which opens with a 1988 Coca-Cola ad, Nicolaas Schmidt’s September Afternoon begins with another vintage commercial — or, at least, a knowing pastiche of one. Smiling families frolic on a beach at the height of summer. Young men and women in bathing suits run by each other flirtatiously. A man in snorkeling gear clowns by the shallows as surfers ride the waves in the background. Somewhere, someone is enjoying an icy popsicle. If the sequence is...