Sundance ‘26: ‘HOLD ONTO ME’ Sees An Estranged Father-Daughter Bond, Frayed and Fumbling Toward Repair

When 11-year-old Iris’ absentee father, Aris, slinks back into town for his father’s funeral in their sleepy Greek fishing village, she tracks him down to an abandoned shipyard and tries to wedge herself into his pathetic little life. In writer-director Myrsini Aristidou’s Greek-language Hold Onto Me (Κράτα Με), this relationship, performed beautifully by Christos Passalis (Aris) and Maria Petrova (Iris) in a two-hander demanding unspoken sensitivity, is the scruffy, beating heart of a film about transformation and reluctant redemption. When we first meet Iris, she’s stealing a dilapidated, leaky boat with her older friend Danea (Jenny Sallo), just another day of drifting around their washed-up town. When we meet Aris, by contrast, we’re introduced to an irredeemable huckster of the highest order: a cigarette glued to his lip like a fifth appendage, engaging in petty theft, hawking chintzy goods, and generally being an abominable prick to his long-forgotten daughter.

Needless to say, Aris is about as bad a dad as they come: brushing Iris off, wanting nothing to do with her, and treating her more like an annoying barnacle than the in-need daughter he ditched seven years ago. But when he realizes that having Iris around boosts his grifting potential, playing the “unfortunate daughter” card for maximum sympathy, he suddenly warms to her presence. He even takes her under his wing, teaching her the not-so-refined art of petty theft and shameless mooching. Aris owes money all over town, including to some dangerous types, and he’s trying to fix up and flip a boat before making another escape attempt. Iris, meanwhile, clings to hope that maybe, just maybe, this time he’ll stick around. But getting closer to him comes with its own hazards, namely being crushed all over again. “He’s here to leave again,” her mother Stella (Aulona Lupa) warns. His actions are further proof that that’s his only intention.

Petrova channels remarkable complexity for a young performer as Iris, shaping a character steeped in the kind of sadness only years of rejection can breed. Her barely-contained depression is subtly underscored by Alex Weston’s emotional score, while her listless ennui registers with clear-eyed potency. As she trails behind the older Danea, who draws the attention of older boys, Iris finds herself in situations she’s likely too young, and too fragile, to navigate. Your heart breaks for her all over again. Meanwhile, at home, her mother is too wrapped up in her own drama to give Iris the attention she so clearly needs. And so, the cycle of abandonment continues.

Emotionally potent and quietly devastating, Hold Onto Me crescendos in unexpected ways, letting its quiet interiority do the heavy lifting, as Iris and Aris more closely circle one another. In her debut feature, Aristidou shows remarkable restraint as a storyteller, and that choice pays off handsomely, especially in the high stakes final act. Small, seemingly mundane moments accumulate weight and meaning, culminating in a richly satisfying, slow-burn coming-of-age journey that thrives on its understated aura and emotionally resonant performances.

CONCLUSION: Christos Passalis and Maria Petrova deliver subtle devastation in Myrsini Aristidou’s ‘Hold Onto Me’, a graceful and potent portrait of a daughter desperate to re-enter the life of her huckster, absentee father.